SHAKSPEBE & AST: 

OK, 

THE POKTKAITUEE OF THE POET : 

AND 
J BY 

E. T. CRAIG. 







HS^J^'H *i 



Look here upo>~ this Pictcre, axd ox this." — Hamlet. 



\ 



SECOND EDITION. 



ILotttion : 
FRED PITMAN, 20, PATERNOSTER ROW. 






REVI EWS 



.OfS 



Mr. Craig's Paper on the Portraits of Shakspere possesses a 
double interest at the present time. 

The subject is treated with great intelligence, and the facts and 
arguments which Mr. Craig adduces in favour of his theory, are 
put forth with considerable literary skill and controversial power. 
The writer pins his faith to the correctness of the Jansen portrait, 
and believes in the cast from Shakspere's face in the possession 
of Professor Owen. His evidence in support of this belief 
is certainly strong and well worth investigation, — more par- 
ticulary as Mr. Craig unearths as witnesses some old family por* 
traits of Shakspere's family, which, up to the present time, have 
received little or no attention. We would warmly commend Mr. 
Craig's papers to the consideration of Shaksperiau scholars. For 
our own part we await his next essay with considerable curiosity.— 
Worcester Journal* 

At the suggestion of Mr. Craig, a number of portraits and 
pictures of Shakspere were lent by various noblemen and gentle- 
men on the occasion of the Tercentenary Festival at Stratford, 
with the idea of arriving at some satisfactory conclusions as to 
the genuineness of the portraits of Shakspere as likenesses, 
by comparing them with each other, in their facial and cranial 
contour, in accordance with established principles. To the ex- 
amination of those busts and portraits which have the best claims 
to authenticity and general approval, Mr. Craig has confined 
himself, and a very clever paper is the result, which will be read 
with much interest by the admirers of the great dramatist. — 
Cheltenham Mercury. 

Mr. Craig has published (Pitman) a curious pamphlet on 
"Shakspere, his Portraits, Bust, and Monument; and the Heri- 
tage of Genius (Parts I. and II.); in which he enquires into mk 
Genealogy, Phrenology, and Physiognomy of the Poet, and gives 
some details not to be found elsewhere, of certain local relics 
attributed to the time of Shakspere (portraits of Susannah, the 
daughter of the Poet), and discovered near Stratford some months 
ago. As an addition to the numerous works on the Portraits of 
Shakspere, Mr. Craig's pamphlet well deserves a careful reading, 
and contains some curious remarks. — ■Birmingham Daily Pod. 

I owe you many thanks for yo'qr;very elegant, learned, and 
important disquisition on the Ma»k and Portraits of Shakspere, 
and I am very glad to find that you can, on so much evidence, 
support the high probability of the genuineness of the Mask. — 
Late Hon. Sec. to the Shakspere House Committee. 

We consider this the best paper we have ever seen from M r. 
Craig's pen.— The English Leccder. 



f 



THE 



® 



Jib 



OF 



HAKSPERE, 



E. T. CRAIG 



in! 



With Illufirations. 

PART I. 




SHAKSPERE. 

From a Photograph of the Butt in Stratford Church, 



Shakspere an& &rt 

fffHE Genius of Shakspere is a marvel to the many, 
^ while the thoughtful recall his wisdom and revere his 
memory. It is proposed to embody this admiration of his 
countrymen in a tangible artistic memorial. His sculp- 
tured form will thus become history cut in stone, telling 
future ages of the spirit and intelligence of the people at 
the Ter-centenary of his birthday. A monument to the 
memory of Shakspere will confer honour on the nation, 
rather than extend the fame of the bard. But a statue 
that gives no truthful indication of the " form and stature" 
of the poet as he lived, would prove a source of disap- 
pointment and indifference in the future. 

A faithful copy of the head of a man of genius is his' 
most reliable biography, — indicating as it does, in bold and 
graphic outlines, the character the Creator hath impressed 
upon the noble yet delicate instrument of thought — the 
brain. It tells in a few brief lines the story of his life, 
his racial parentage, his emotional proclivities, and the bias 
of his mental powers. Hence, portraiture affords universal 
gratification, and physiognomy becomes a captivating 
study ; while both acquire increased interest and greater 
practical utility, when the relations between organisation 
and character are fully understood. Which, therefore, 
among the many portraits of Shakspere, is the genuine 
likeness of the bard, is a subject of great interest, worthy 
of investigation, and, if possible, of discovery. 

The question respecting the genuineness of the portraits 
of Shakspere as likenesses, has long remained vague and 
unsatisfactory. The pedigrees of several have been given, 
but no satisfactory examination of the portraits has hither- 
to been published ; and as the only way to arrive at a 
sound conclusion was by comparing them with each other, 
in their facial and cranial contour, in accordance with 
established principles, an exhibition of Shakspere's Por- 
traits and pictures, to be held in the town of Stratford 
during the Ter-centenary Festival of the poet's birthday, 
was advocated in the local press* The suggestion was 
approved, and a number of portraits and pictures were lent 
by various noblemen and gentlemen for the purpose : the 

* By the writer, in the " Stratford Herald," June 11 and 22, 1863. 



SHAKSPERE AXD ART. O 

whole were very judiciously arranged under the superin- 
tendence of Mr. Hogarth, of the Hayrnarket ; and consti- 
tuted one of the most interesting features of the festival 
at Stratford-on-Avon. This collection of Shakspere por- 
traits, which had never before been exhibited together, 
was both unique and suggestive, — leading to results of 
higher importance than could possibly be anticipated ; for 
careful and repeated examinations and comparisons of the 
portraits with the bust and mask taken after death, 
led to the conclusion that a genuine portrait of Shakspere 
exists ; and moreover, that several of the portraits have 
emanated from one characteristic source. 

Some of the best authenticated portraits are the pro- 
ductions of inferior artists ; others are disputed ; while 
several are frauds and impositions. It is therefore desir- 
able to ascertain, as far as practicable, which portrait ap- 
proximates the nearest to the " counterpart presentment" 
of the poet ; and the light of modern science will enable 
us to arrive at a nearer point of truth and exactness than 
has hitherto been possible. 

It is only within the present century that the discovery 
has been made — a discovery which modern artists only 
could apply — that special characteristics are connected with 
particular portions of the head, and that mental greatness 
mainly depends on the size, form, and condition or quality 
of the brain. There is also a correspondence between the 
thorax and the abdomen, and the brain. We seldom find 
that a large anterior lobe and narrow base of the brain 
are combined with large lungs and a large abdomen ; and 
we as rarely see that a large base and small anterior lobe 
are combined with small lungs and a small abdomen. 
There is, therefore, a language, so to speak, pervading the 
whole corporeal frame of man, which bears a relation to 
the size, form, and condition of the brain ; while every 
part of the visible surface expresses the quality as well as 
the quantity of the mental power that pervades and ani- 
mates it. Biographic portraiture, therefore, requires a 
knowledge of anatomy, physiology, phrenology, and ethnic 
physiognomy, as well as of art to perceive, delineate, and 
preserve the true, distinct, racial, and special type ; and 
also to estimate the relationship in form between the body, 
the brain, and the moral and mental character and capa- 
bility of a man of mark or talent. 



4 SHAKSPERE AKD ART. 

Genius, by its intuitions, as in Da Vinci, Raphael, and 
Michael Angelo, often realises the truth at once, in its 
creations ; while the ordinary mind fails to attain it but 
by slow and oft-repeated efforts. 

A sculptor may mould a face, or turn a joint ; the 
painter may tint a lip, or foreshorten a limb, and yet fail to 
delineate the head accurately, because indifferent to the 
law which shows that the nervous system reigns supreme 
over physical development, and determines the elements of 
shape, contour, and physiognomy, as well as indicates spe- 
cial idiosyncracies of character and capacity. If a Bacchus 
requires one style of muscular development, Hercules 
another, and Diana a third, — so there is one form of head 
for the poet, another for the brutal criminal, and a 
different one for the clown. It is the imperfection in the 
brain that leaves the idiot a driveller ; it is its form and 
quality that exalts the poet in his temple, and raises the 
throne of the patriot in the hearts of the people. Men 
are eloquent on the bones of extinct animals, but silent on 
the convolutions of the brain, and their resulting forms on 
the head ; and yet the forehead of the highly-gifted 
musician differs from that of the mathematician ; that of 
the portrait-painter must vary from that of the linguist, 
engineer, and the landscape artist ; while men like Michael 
Angelo, Da Vinci, Shakspere, and Goethe, possessing 
universality of power, must require well-balanced brains, 
and finely-organised nervous constitutions, to accomplish 
their mission. 

Thus the interest awakened by a portrait, bust, or sta- 
tue of Shakspere, is in proportion to the probable exactness 
of the artist in making the portraits special, biographic, 
and individually true as a likeness of the bard. But there 
was no painter of eminence in England at the commence- 
ment of the 17th century, for repeated efforts were made 
by Henry, Prince of Wales, through Sir Edward Conway, 
to induce " the painter of Delft" to visit England, but he 
failed : although £40 were offered to this artist to meet 
the expenses of the voyage, he could not be induced to 
leave his Dutch patrons, or undertake the journey, in 1611. 
It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, that no artist of 
eminence was at that time in England, to paint a portrait 
of Shakspere from life. Portrait painting was a luxury 
enjoyed only by the nobility or the very wealthy. The arri- 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

val of Jansen in 1618 extended the taste and increased the 
opportunity for the possession of portraits among those of 
the class to which Ben Jonson belonged ; and we find a 
likeness of him by Jansen about this period. It is quite 
possible, too, that he saw and copied a cast of Shakspere 
while painting his portrait. Jansen was followed by 
Mytens, Oliver, and others, till the arrival of Rubens and 
Vandyke. In the interval Shakspere' s popularity had in- 
creased and his portraits multiplied. There are now like- 
nesses by the modellers, the engravers, the sculptors, and 
the painters. How the mere artist would be likely to treat 
the portrait of the popular idol, we may learn from what 
Gainsborough was inclined to do, as stated by himself in 
his letter to David Garrick, on the subject of a portrait of 
the poet, when he says : — 

" ' Shakefpeare fhall come forth forthwith,' as the lawyer says. Damn 
the original picture of him, with yaur leave ; for I think a ftupider face 
I never beheld, except D — k's. 

" I intend, with your approbation, my dear friend, to take the form from 
his pictures and ftatues, juft enough to preferve his likenefs paft the doubt 
of all blockheads at firft fight, and fupply a foul from his works : it is im- 
pofsible that fuch a mind and raj' of heaven could fhine with fuch a face 
and pair of eyes as that picture has." 

This blunt yet characteristic condemnation of the po- 
pular portraits of Shakspere, by one of our best English 
portrait painters, together with the evidence j)resented by 
the portraits themselves, lead to the conclusion that 
most of them are idealised creations of the painter, from 
very slight materials as a foundation for a likeness. To 
arrive at a satisfactory approximation to the truth, we must 
apply higher and severer criteria than art, and adopt the 
more certain tests of science and cerebral physiology, as 
far as practicable, in examining the likenesses of the poet. 
The collection of thirty different portraits of Shakspere, 
and their juxta-position on the walls of the Town Hall, 
afforded a good opportunity for judging of the great variety 
of forms various artists have given to the head of the bard, 
when compelled, without a model, to 

''Weave their vagaries around it." 

It is this great difference in the various portrait- — in 
the essential and distinguishing elements of the poet and 
the man — which renders a selection of the possible and the 



b SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

real from the imaginary and. the false, absolutely necessary 
to eliminate the truth in relation to the portraiture of the 
poet. 

The exhibition was a severe ordeal to the popular favour- 
ites. One or two of the portraits are monstrous exaggera- 
tions ; others are delineated, as Shakspere says, with fore- 
heads "villainously low;" while in some pictures the ex- 
pression in the face is in contradiction to the size and form 
of the brain, and we must turn them to the wall of 
oblivion, as unworthy of consideration. 

I shall confine myself, therefore, to the examination of 
those only which have the best claims to authenticity and 
general approval, and those are : — 

1. The Bust on the Monument near the tomb of 

Shakspere, in the Chancel of the Church at Stratf orcl- 
on-Avon. 

2. The Engraved Portrait, by Martin Droeshout, 

and first published with the folio edition of Shakspere 's 
works, in 1623. 

3. The Stratford Portrait, at the birthplace. [lery). 

4. The Chandos Portrait (at the National Portrait Gal- 

5. The Jansen Portraits (J. Staunton, Esq. and others). 

6. The Felton Head (at the birthplace), 

7. The Lumley Likeness (at Mrs. Rippon's, N. Shields), 

8. The Zetland Portrait (the Countess of Zetland's), 

9. The Warwick Portrait (Warwick Castle) : and lastly, 
10. The Cast, said to be from the face and forehead of 

Shakspere after death, and lent from the British 
Museum during the Exhibition at Stratford, and the 
Festival of the Ter- centenary of his birthday. 

Wjt Sbtratfotii «23ust. 

The Bust in the Stratford Charch first claims our atten- 
tion, because it possesses the greatest authenticity as a 
monumental effigy of the poet, and was erected within a 
few years after his death, under the superintendence or 
direction of the poet's family — Dr. and Mrs. Hall. 

The bust is the size of life, cut out of a single block of 
soft stone. The hands are resting on a cushion, with a 
pen, as if in the act of writing. The figure, represented in 
the dress of the period, presents a stout, heavy appearance, 
and is executed without much artistic taste or skill. As a 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 7 

■work of art, it is far inferior to the monuments of the period 
in the neighbourhood — such as those on the tombs of the 
Cloptons, Sir Thomas Lucy, and others. After the manner 
of the times, the monument was painted — the hair, beard, 
and moustache of an auburn colour, and the eyes hazel ; 
the dress consisting of a scarlet doublet, over which was a 
tabard, or loose black gown, without sleeves. These details 
woidd lead to the supposition of an attempt to obtain an 
exact likeness. Having a cast taken from the face of it 
now before me, I can appreciate its effect on those who 
are prepared to accept as truth what has so strong a resem- 
blance of life and reality. Sir F. Chantry, himself a 
sculptor ; Hugh Miller, a stonemason ; Bullock and Fair- 
holt, artists — all speak in approval of the monument ; but 
they look at it from a limited point of view, and without 
being qualified to perceive the incongruities that are appa- 
rent to the ethnic student, the physiologist, and phrenologist. 
On the other hand, Mr. Skottowe declares that the bust " is 
not only at variance with the tradition of Shakspere's 
appearance having been prepossessing, but irreconcilable 
with the belief of its ever having borne a striking resem- 
blance to any human being." 

This is a sweeping conclusion, with which I do not 
altogether agree ; but I have no theory to advocate as to 
Shakspere's personal appearance or beauty, except that 
which harmonises with the relation of nervous power and 
capacity, and the law that all beauty is organic. The 
world owes much of its civilisation and advancement to 
men whose intellect and moral beauty lie beyond the range 
of the mental vision of the multitude. It is not in the 
most regular features, most beautiful faces, or fairest com- 
plexions, that we find the greatest power of mind or of 
character. 

Boswell tells us that Mrs. Boswell considered Dr. John- 
son more like a bear than a beauty ; Mirabeau was, accord- 
ing to his own description of himself to a lady, "like a 
tiger pitted with the small pox." In the portrait of Gold- 
smith there is nothing to indicate the man who " could 
write like an angel, yet talk like a fool." We do not look for 
beauty of facial contour in a Michael Angelo, a Cromwell, 
a Luther, a Brougham, or a Garibaldi. Those who have 
exercised the greatest influence over humanity were not, 
physically speaking, the most handsome of their race. It 



SHAKSTERE AND ART. 




SIR THOMAS LUCY. 

From the Effigy on the Tomb in Charlecote Chuich. 

is the size, quality, and proportions of the brain that con- 
stitute the sources of power and the cause of our admira- 
tion. Our attraction to them does not originate in their 
features, but in their works — their deeds, prompted by 
their brains — the true source of all their beauty. When 
we find in them high moral organisms, we see that even 
yet beauty "rides with the lion-hearted ;" for it is the beauty 
and harmony existing in the brain, embodied in great and 
generous actions and noble work, that wins the heart's 
worship, and commands its lasting sympathy : and our 
task is to ascertain, if possible, what Shakspere was in 
form and stature, in relation to his character as a poet and 
a man. 

According to Dugdale, Gerard Johnson, the "tombe- 
maker," was employed to erect the monument of Shak- 
spere in the Stratford Church. Wheeler states that he 
resided in London, and employed a number of journeymen 
and apprentices. He appears to have been much engaged, 
and probably made his own designs, and left the details to 
be elaborated by one of his journeymen. 

It is the opinion of Chantrey, Bell, and others, that the 
tomb-maker worked from a cast of the face taken after 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 9 

death. The face of the bust belongs to the true Warwick- 
shire type of physiognomy, found among the mass of the 
people. It is broad, and the cheek bones are low ; the jaw 
heavy, and rather massive ; the cheeks round, full, fleshy, 
and flaccid. The upper lip is very long, and the mous- 
tache coarsely cut ; the tuft on the chin rather thick, and 
rudely indicated by the tool of the workman. The face 
has a cheerful, jovial, life-like look in the expression, but 
the features are not indicative of sensibility or refinement. 
The head runs up high towards Firmness : it is broad across 
the perceptive region, and expands towards Acquisitive- 
ness and Ideality — a feature not accurately given in some 
of the engraved portraits of the monument. Hain Frizwell 
says — " The skull is a mere block, and a phrenologist 
would be puzzled at its smoothness and roundness. It 
has no more individuality than a boy's marble !" It is 
the facial and cranial contour that renders the bust, as a 
portrait, enigmatical. 

The face of a man of great intellectual and moral power 
generally bears deep traces of thought and feeling in its 
habitual expressions, form, and texture; while soft, 
round, undefined fat cheeks, drowsy eyes and expres- 
sions, speak of feeble mental powers and slothful habits. 
These effects arise from the action of the brain on the 
nerves, which expand themselves on the face and the eye, 
and where the mind finds its most responsive and sympa- 
thetic indicators. When viewed from the floor of the 
chancel, the fleshy character of the face of the bust pre- 
dominates. To be able to do it justice, the spectator must 
be placed in a position where he can examine it in a line 
before him. It is very evident that the tomb-maker had 
not the cast from the British Museum to guide him. Mr. 
Fairholt, F.S.A., says — " The whole of the face has been 
sculptured with singular delicacy and remarkable care, 
except in one instance, which indeed still more strongly 
confirms the position now assumed. The eyes are not only 
badly executed, but are untrue to nature : they are mere elip- 
tical openings, exhibiting none of the delicate curvatures 
which ought to be expressed ; the ciliary cartilages are 
straight, hard, and rmmeaning ; and the glands at the 
corners next to the nose entirely omitted." The inartistic 
manner of dealing with the eyelids leads him to conclude 
that the artist followed a good model in other parts of the 



10 SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

face. But, on the other hand, it will he admitted that a 
cast taken after death could not give that fulness to the 
upper eyelids here indicated. A form prostrated by fever, 
and wasted by disease, would give to the eyes a sunken 
aspect ; and if he worked after such a model, the artist 
has taken great liberties, not only with the eyes> but other 
parts of the face. The forehead is large, and has, from 
large Comparison, a preponderance in the upper part-; 
while Causality and Wit are the least indicated. Indi- 
viduality and other perceptive powers are only moderate 
in their development. 

The openings in the eyes show that they were made on 
a cast which served as the model for the bust : but I am 
inclined to think the cast was taken during life, and from 
some other living person than the poet, and modelled to 
harmonise with the recollections of the friends of the bard ; 
especially as it was not made till about the time when the 
first edition of the plays was published in 1623, and pre- 
sents several other doubtful features. The tomb-maker was 
probably required, as is often the case in the present day, 
to make a mere monumental effigy, possessing a general 
resemblance, rather than an exact likeness of the departed 
poet, leaving, as I have said, the details to be carried out 
by his assistants, sent into the provinces to execute the 
work. 

It was the custom of artists in Shakspere's time to take 
casts after death from the face and forehead of persons 
belonging to the nobility. Johnson's model was from a 
plaster mould ; and the fulness of the fleshy parts of the 
cheeks, the eyes, and the drawn-up nostrils, would all 
mark themselves on a mould from a living person. 
The face of the original cast was probably without a 
moustache, which was very in artistically supplied by the 
tomb-maker, either in applying his material to the face of 
his model, or in chiseling it from his fancy. It is rudely 
cut, and curled up. If taken after death, neither the 
moustache nor the hair of the head would have retained 
their curls, as it is necessary to reduce them to a smooth, 
even surface in taking a cast, as indicated in the case of 
Sir Thomas Lucy, a sketch of whose profile is given above. 
They have been added by the artist, to make the bust 
pleasing, life-like, and " picturesque." The full and heavy 
appearance of the face and figure lead to the conclusion 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 11 

tliat the original would not be able to sustain long and 
continued mental exertion — would be rather fond of ease 
and the gratification of the appetites — liable to fits of 
impulsive good nature and passionate utterance. 

The chief value of the bust lies in the illustration of the 
fact that the head was rather large,' and the complexion 
fair, and that the forehead was expanded at the sides above 
the temples. The dress was that of the day, and the hair 
and eyes were coloured in harmony with nature. But the 
temperament indicated — sanguine lympathetic — was not 
that of Shakspere. 

It is difficult for artists to realise a faithful likeness 
from mere verbal descriptions of the features. This is 
especially the case with those who have not become 
acquainted with the varying forms of the brain, in relation 
to special tendencies ; and is repeatedly illustrated in the 
works of painters and sculptors of the present day. I have 
seen four busts of the poet Montgomery, all modelled 
about the same period of life, yet all different, and only 
one appears true to nature. On the other hand, any 
special and prominent feature is liable to a little exaggera- 
tion. In 1843, a clever artist brought out a humourous 
cartoon relating to the movements of the Free Church 
party in Edinburgh, in which there were several groups, 
and excellent portraits of well-known literary characters — 
Professor Wilson (Christopher North), George Combe, Lord 
Jeffery, Eev. Robert Montgomery, James Simpson, the 
Lord Provost, Lord Cunningham, Sheriff Thomson, Lord 
Murray, Dr. Classon, and others ; and while every portrait 
was an admirable likeness, every prominent feature was 
exaggerated, and to such an extent that the central figure 
has repeatedly been declared, by intelligent artists, as 
merely wanting the collar, the moustache, and the tuft, to 
make it a Shakspere ! — showing that an exaggerated fore- 
head is the popular ideal of the poet ; whereas the chief 
elements of his power lay in his happy cerebral combina- 
tious, and a fine temperament — quality added to keen 
perceptive faculty. 

®5e portraits of Shakspere. 

Although the portraits of Shakspere are numerous, and 
a general character of a high forehead and sedate expres 
sion prevails throughout, there are differences and con 



12 SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

trasts which are perplexing, both to the artist and the 
public. As it becomes necessary to make a selection of 
those which have the best claim to examination, it will 
reduce the series of portraits to those reputed to be the 
work of Droeshout ; that of Taylor, or Burbage, called the 
Chandos, and now belonging to the National Portrait 
Gallery ; the Zetland, the Lumley, and the J arisen Portraits. 
These have formed the materials out of which many pictures 
have been painted — such as the Warwick, the Felton, and 
other portraits. 

Several of the portraits exhibited differ very much in 
some essential features ; while other elements could not 
exist together in the same head, or in that of a poet of 
Shakspere's proclivities. The forms of the head are as vari- 
ous as the physiognomies are perplexing ; while the colours 
of the complexion are equally contradictory. If we are to 
rely on one artist, then Shakspere had a head enormously 
enlarged in the coronal region, as in the Felton head ; 
while other portraits indicate the brain deficient in the 
moral sentiments. According to the painters, the eyes of 
the poet were, at the same time, black, brown, and blue ; 
his nose, too, in one portrait is Roman, in another Grecian, 
a third aquiline, a fourth snub, and others are of the com- 
posite order. The upper lip in one likeness is very short, 
in another very long. The hair, moustache, and beard are 
painted by one as black, another brown, a third reddish- 
brown, and by others flaxen ; and the complexion all shades, 
from very fair and light to very dark. These opposite 
attributes reduce the range of view to the elements of form 
and proportion in the facial contour, the cerebral develop- 
ments, and the physical conformation of the body. The 
temperament was evidently a combination in which the 
mental, the nervous, and sanguine predominated, imparting 
great susceptibility, quickness, and love of action, which 
were undoubtedly attributes and characteristics of Shak- 
spere's physical tendencies. 

Wfyz ©roesfjout portrait. 

Next to the bust in the church, the engraved portrait by 
Droeshout claims our attention. It was prefixed to the 
first edition of Shakspere's plays, published by Heminge 
and Condell in 1623, and is believed by Mr. Halliwell to 



SHAKSPERE AXD ART. 13 

have been engraved from an original picture. Heminge 
and Condell were "fellow-players" with Shakspere, and 
knew him well and intimately. The portrait has the 
further testimony in its favour in the following lines by 
Ben Jonson, a friend and companion of the poet, and in- 
scribed on the page opposite to the engraving : — 

The figure thou here see'st put, 

Tt was for gentle Shakspere cut, 
Wherein the graver had a strife 

With Nature, to outdoe the life ; 
0, could he but have drawn his wit 

As well in "brasse as he hath hit 
His face, the print would then surpasse 

All that was ever writ in brasse ; 
But since he cannot — Reader, looke, 

Not on his Picture, but his Booke. — b. J. 

These lines indicate that the face was represented with 
some degree of truth and faithfulness. It may, however, 
be observed, that Droeshout could scarcely have delineated 
Shakspere from his own knowledge, as the artist was not 
in England until after the death of the poet. He did not 
copy the cast from the face now in the British Museum, 
and probably relied either on Ben Jonson or Burbage for a 
portrait and description, or he took the Stratford bust for 
his model. But this is very doubtful, because he was a 
faithful copyist, and the engraved portrait and the bust are 
materially different. 

It may be observed that the collar is not of the fashion of 
Shakspere's class at that period. Artists have, until the 
present century, paid greater attention to the face and 
costume than to the head. They are, with a few exceptions, 
even yet less exact and minute in the delineation of the 
head than the face. Now, the configuration of the head is 
the best biography of a man of intellect, talent, and cha- 
racter. The Droeshout head appears too high for its 
breadth, and inclines to a greater resemblance of form seen 
in Scott than Byron, Canova than Chantry, West than 
Flaxman, of Wordsworth than Burns. If there is a slight 
similarity to the general form in the face of the Stratford 
bust, there are striking differences in particular features. 
The nose is more prominent, well defined, and finely 
marked, with a flowing outline, and the nostrils rather 



14 SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

large. There is the long upper lip, and a general corre- 
spondence with the mouth of the cast and the bust. The 
eyes are large, and in life would be full and lustrous, but 
not so prominent as in the bust, the Stratford, or the 
Chandos portraits. The head, however, is comparatively 
narrow, and so very marked in this respect that it indicates 
not only weakness in the portrait, but feebleness in the 
character, and tends to diminish my reliance on its accuracy 
as a faithful likeness, at least as regards this portion of the 
picture. The organ of Secretiveness, so essential to the 
actor, the critic, and the student of character, is indicated 
as very small. If Shakspere was not the best of actors, he 
was acknowledged to be a successful teacher of those 
players who sought his instructions as a tutor, as in the 
case of Taylor and others, who became eminent on the stage 
in their elocutionary delivery. The organ of Destructive- 
ness, which forms so important an element in energy and 
force of character, depth of utterance and action, is very small 
in the engraving. Constructiveness, manifestly a great power 
in the mental structure of the poet's composition, is also 
indicated as deficient. Acquisitiveness, too, is small, and 
yet Shakspere was the only actor of his day, besides Alleyn, 
who retired with a competency, and who afterwards showed 
a prudent regard for the accumulation of property. As it 
is doubtful whether the engraver ever saw the living form 
of Shakspere, this feebleness in the breadth of the head 
would enable him to pourtray other marked features to the 
satisfaction of Jonson, Heminge, and Condell, and thus the 
imaginative faculties are represented as very prominent. 
Ideality, "Wit, Wonder, Imitation, Comparison, and Causality 
are all very conspicuously indicated as very large. The 
perceptive faculties are scarcely so well marked as to 
accord with the power of keen observation and vast com- 
mand in range of view in dealing with physical objects, so 
evident in his works. This may be the fault of the 
engraver. The relative deficiency is partially visible in the 
bust and the Warwick portrait, but does not exist in the 
Jansen, the Lumley, the Felton, or in the Chandos por- 
trait in the National Portrait Gallery. It is still more 
strikingly different in this feature to the mask from the 
face ol Shakspere. 

Although these characteristics in the engraving do not 
all harmonise with what we know of Shakspere's career 






SHAKSRERE AND ART. 15 

and character, there is one feature that agrees well with 
Jonson's worship, Spenser's admiration, and Milton's praise 
— the engraver has given a large endowment of Benevolence 
and Veneration in addition to all those faculties which de- 
light in the gay, lively, and cheerful aspect of things ; while 
the passions and propensities are only small, tending to 
that kind and benignant expression indicated by the en- 
dearing epithets, "Sweet Will ;" " My gentle Shakspere." 
But then, with such a narrow brain there would be a lack of 
force to deal with those powerful and passionate dramas so 
terrible and terrifying in their life-like realities, where we 
see rage, jealousy, and revenge, bursting all the ties of 
affection, pride, and ambition, and using poniards and 
the deadly poison to gratify their vengeance— all working 
with an intensity and power irresistibly illustrative of the 
breadth and energy of the poet. 

It is, however, probable that the bard's full forehead 
would be graphically sketched or described by Jonson and 
the players as being large and high ; the artist would mark 
the feature, and indeed — 

"had a strife 
With nature to outdo the life." 

The engraver seems to have had some knowledge of the 
regulation of Henry VIII., who "excluded beards from the 
great table under penalty of paying double commons ; " or 
of the decree imposed in the first year of Elizabeth, when 
they were limited to a " fortnight's growth, under penalty 
of 3s. 4d." The few hairs under the bottom lip of 
Droeshout's engraving lead to the impression that the 
artist, not having the original before him, filled in the 
few signs of a beard in accordance with his own fancy, 
which in this feature makes the portrait unlike others of 
the poet and his contemporaries. 

The physical proportions of the Droeshout figure har- 
monise better with a fine temperament and an intellectual 
head, than either the Stratford bust or portrait; and the 
same relative proportions are observable in the mezzotinto 
portrait by Wiveil, the Lumley likeness, the Zetland, the 
Warwick, and especially so in the Jansen portraits. 

W$i &tratto Portrait. 

This painting, considered by some persons as an inter- 
esting portrait of Shakspere^ and now preserved in the 



16 SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

birthplace of the poet, was formerly in the possession of 
Mr. Hunt, the town-clerk of Stratford, and belonged to his 
grandfather, a gentleman who took a prominent part in the 
affairs of the Garrick Jubilee in 1769 ; but there the pedi- 
gree ends. Although often seen in a lobby in Mr. Hunt's 
house, it had remained unnoticed and unknown, and passed 
scores of times by Mr. Halliwell without any idea of its 
importance, until it had been shown to Mr. Collins, a pic- 
ture restorer, who was, in 1861, employed in cleaning and 
restoring the tints of the monumental effigy in the church. 
On removing a ferocious looking beard and moustache, 
there was discovered a portrait of Shakspere ! — a result 
that recalls the experiment made on Talma's Shakspere, 
painted on the bellows, which when cleaned proved to be 
an old lady in a cap and kerchief ! 

Mr. Hunt is too sincere and disinterested in his wish to 
do honour to the memory of Shakspere, to be concerned in 
any deception as to the picture, or to wish to deprecate any 
criticism upon it. Its position among the other portraits 
exhibited, and its preservation at the house in Henley 
Street, rather call for a closer examination than would be 
otherwise accorded to it from the first glance at its glossy, 
glowing surfaces, and rotund outlines. In examining 
its claims to be considered a portrait, we find it bears 
a strong resemblance in its general form to the bust in the 
church, both in the dress, the moustache, imperial, and the 
curls in the hair. The style, as well as the tints of the 
dress, are in every detail a copy of the bust ; in fact, it is 
an old portrait with a new face, called a Shakspere, — but no 
more like what Shakspere was than a Dutch dray-horse is 
to a racer, or a Solan goose to a skylark. 

The full round globular forms which make the bust 
doubtful as a copy of Shakspere, are here exaggerated, and 
render the facial and cranial contour of the portrait inferior 
to the bust. The heads of all great masters of verse have 
the group of organs essential to the poet of imagination 
and fancy large, as seen in the portraits of Tasso, Dante, 
Ariosto, Chaucer, Spenser, Fenelon, Milton, Pope, Schiller, 
Wordsworth, and others ; and yet Shakspere, greater than 
all, is here pourtrayed without the poetic organisation, 
either in form or condition. Wonder, Ideality, and Wit, 
are only very moderately indicated, and the stronger passions 
are marked with prominence, while there are no salient 






SHAKSPERE AND ART. 



17 



angles in the coronal region as moral bulwarks to resist the 
attacks of the grosser feelings. It would be a great mis- 
take to take any feature in this portrait as a model for a 
statue of the bard. Shakspere himself has shown us that 
he understood the relation between the inward conditions 
and the outward signs. He makes Thurio, in the Two 
Gentlemen of Verona, say :— 

If I had my will, the painter should take rne at my prayers : 
there is then a heavenly beauty in the face ; the soul moves in the 
super/ices. 

The clown in Twelfth Night, on assuming the gown of 
the priest as a disguise, shows his knowledge of the re- 
lation of form and capacity, in saying : — 

I'm not fat enough to become the function well ; nor lean enough 
to be thought a good student ; but to be said an honest man and a 
good house-keeper, goes as fairly as to say, a careful man and a 
great scholar. 

Shakspere is still more emphatic when he makes Csesar 
say:— 

Let me have men about me that are fat, 
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights. 
Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look j 
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. 

Antony. Fear him not, Csesar ; he's not dangerous ; 
He is a noble Eoman, and well given. 

Ccesar. Would he were fatter I — but I fear him not ; 
Yet if my name were liable to fear, 
I do not know the man I should avoid 
So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads too much ; 
He is a great observer, and he looks 
Quite through the deeds of men. 

W%z CJantics portrait. 

This portrait is the most attractive, the most picturesque, 
and as a photograph finds the greatest favour with the 
public. But whatever the portrait originally may have 
been like, it comes with a questionable pedigree be- 
fore it belonged to Betterton ; and since his day it appears 
to have been much altered and improved. Sir Godfrey 
Kneller copied it ; Ozias Humphrey amended and improved 
it ; Sir Joshua Reynolds retouched it ; and it is said, too, 
that Sir Thomas Clarges got a young man, who was thought 
to be like Shakspere, to sit for the portrait. It is impossible 
to trace any traditional resemblance to Shakspere in the 



18 SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

portrait in the National Portrait Gallery ; and unfortu- 
nately it carries its own condemnation on the face of it. 
It looks like a composition made to please the eye, and it 
has not the slightest heritage of the "Warwickshire physi- 
ognomies — either those of the Shaksperes or the Hathaways 
— so far as I can trace them in their living representatives. 
The forehead of the Chandos in the National Portrait 
Gallery is high, square, and noble in its proportions, but 
the face is somewhat dark, and the lips are thick, prominent 
and sensual. The eyes are large, and the nose also is large. 
There is a moustache, a full beard and whiskers, in the 
style introduced by Rubens in his portraits after his ar- 
rival in England in 1630. In this feature there is a great 
contrast to the Stratford bust and the Droeshout engraving. 
Besides, Shakspere's complexion was not dark, but fair and 
light. The form of the head, too, is carried too much into 
the abstract and metaphysical type to_ belong to the prac- 
tical character of Shakspere. 

&fje Jangett portrait. 

Three portraits of Shakspere, by Jansen, were exhibited 
in the collection at Stratford, — one belonging to Mr. Staun- 
ton, another to Mr. Flack, a third to Sir J. L. Kaye, besides 
other copies after this painter. The Countess of Zetland 
exhibited a very interesting portrait, considered to be 
original. The Earl of Warwick had two portraits said to 
be of Shakspere. The Somerset Jansen has the date agree- 
ing with the poet's age — " ast. 46, 1610." This portrait is a 
valuable work of art, and is regarded as a genuine portrait 
of Shakspere. Two of the above Jansens in the exhibi- 
tion have the poet's name, and age 47, across the upper part 
of the picture. 

The portraits by Jansen introduce a different type of 
head to those hitherto described. The best of these repre- 
sent a refined, intellectual, and handsome man. The facial 
contour is aquiline, and the complexion fair. It is a singular 
fact that one or two of the portraits, and especially that be- 
longing to Mr. Flack, agree with the mask almost in every 
particular. There is the same oval face and fair complexion 
in both, the well-defined forehead, and very prominent 
yet evenly arched eye-brows. The upper lip is shorter 
than in the mask, but the moustache is separated in a 
similar manner. They both singularly agree in their 



SHAK8PERE AND ART. 19 

phrenological characteristics ; but the eyes are blueish- 
grey. This seerns to be an objection against the painting 
being from life, if the colours given to the bust at Stratford 
be true to nature, as they probably are, for they were 
painted under the direction of the poet's friends. As Jan- 
sen did not arrive in England till 1618, two years after the 
poet's death, he could not from personal observation know 
what colour the eyes of Shakspere were. But if he painted 
his beautiful portrait from the cast of the poet's face, then 
he would use the painter's license, and give the colour to 
the eyes to suit the temperament and complexion, which is 
generally blue in the xanthous or fair-haired sons of 
Scandinavia. 

It is a curious fact that seven other portraits exhibited in 
this gallery had the aquiline physiognomy, making eleven 
out of thirty. That belonging to the Countess of Zetland 
has the same oval face, arched eyebrow, and sandy or 
light auburn hair ; and when the mask taken from the face 
was placed near the portraits, it seemed to say in the words 
of the poet : — 

"Compare our faces, and be judge yourselves." 

And it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the best 
of the Jansens has been painted either from this mask or 
one marvellously like it. In either case the difficulties 
which have hitherto hung around the portraits of Shaks- 
pere seem to vanish, and we begin to see him in his form 
and feature as he lived ; finely organised in his mental 
combinations, with an ardent and highly impressionable 
nature and constitution, and all harmonious with his comely 
physical proportions, his handsome features, mental activity, 
and, above all, with a cerebral sensibility increased by the 
temperament of genius. 

There is at Stratford an old painting of a group of 
figures representing a scene from Shakspere's Taming of 
the Shrew, which is said to have been painted by Thomas 
Hart, a nephew of Shakspere. In this group is the 
figure of Shakspere himself. The painting is in the 
possession of Mrs. James, who owns several other relics 
which belonged to the Hornbys, relations of the Harts. In 
this old picture Shakspere has the physical proportions and 
physiognomy indicated both by the mask and the Jansen 
portraits — a singular confirmation, for Thomas Hart, as scene 



20 



8HAK8PERE AND ART. 



painter, must have been familiar with Shakspere's general 
appearance, either from knowledge or tradition. He has 
pictured him more true, physically speaking, to what is 
possible for the player, the writer, and the man of inces- 
sant activity and industry, than the rotund effigy, or the 
plump picture called the Stratford portrait. 

Ww ODast from ^fjafcspere's Jpace. 




In the Britifh Mufeum. 

Accurate casts of the whole head are the best and most 
reliable biographic memorial portraitures of men of note ; 
and ere long these will be held in higher estimation than 
the fading colours of the decaying canvass. Even the 
antique busts of the Greeks and Eomans, with their quiet 
smile, or austere glance, yet truthful contours, awaken a 
vivid sympathy with the distant and forgotten members of 
the great family of man, and convey a fuller conviction of 
the identity of our species, and bring the past nearer to the 
present, than volumes of heavy historic records ; because 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 21 

they appeal to sight and perception of form, proportion, and 
fitness in character. 

It is rather remarkable, in connection with this Exhi- 
bition of Portraits of Shakspere in the town where he 
was born, lived, married, died, and lies buried, that a cast, 
taken it is said from his face after death, should, after 250 
years' absence, be exhibited side by side with portraits by 
artists of various periods. The test was a severe one, but 
highly important in its results, if we are enabled thereby 
to show that certain popular portraits are not likenesses of 
Shakspere, while others have a strong if not an undeniable 
claim to be considered true and genuine portraits of the 
poet. 

The cast from the face was brought to light about 15 
years ago. It is alleged to have been originally purchased 
by a German nobleman attached to the Court of James I., 
and preserved as a relic of Shakspere in the family of 
Kesselstadt, until the last of the race, Count von Kessel- 
stadt, a canon of Cologne Cathedral, died in 1843, when 
his collection of curiosities was sold and dispersed. Dr. 
Becker purchased the cast and the miniature copy of it, 
and brought both to this country. On leaving England for 
Australia, he left the mask in the care of Professor Owen, 
at the British Museum. Becker was an enthusiastic 
botanist, who, joining the expedition under Burke, perished 
with him on the return from their Overland journey- 
ings and discoveries. On the back of the mask is the in- 
scription — "a.d. 1616." The miniature which has accom- 
panied it has a wreath around the head intimating that it 
is the likeness of a poet. Hain Eriswell justly observes 
that "the cast bears some resemblance to the more refined 
portraits of the poet ;" and I propose to direct attention to 
a few of these points of agreement or difference. There 
is no ground for the statement of those who think this 
mask furnished the tomb-maker with his model for the 
monument in the church. It is utterly impossible ; for in 
nearly every facial and cranial outline where a comparison 
can be instituted, they are dissimilar. 

When I first saw the mask lying flat under its glass 
cover, I was doubtful of its genuineness, because it was at 
variance with the ethnic type of the Warwickshire 
physiognomy indicated by the Stratford monument, and to 
a considerable extent belonging to a majority of the people 



22 SHAKSPBRE AND ART. 

in the district. I was allowed to raise the mask to a posi- 
tion level with the line of sight, and the face and forehead 
then presented much more harmonious proportions — 
very remarkable in their combinations. The mask has 
strongly marked, yet regular and finely formed features. 
The brain is the most prominent over the lower part of the 
forehead, and at the sides. It is well and harmoniously 
developed in the region of the perceptive faculties, which 
are very large, as indicated by the sketch of the profile of 
the cast, and differs in this respect from the Bust, the 
Droeshout engraving, and the Warwick portraits, but 
singularly agrees with most of the facial and cranial out- 
lines of the Jansen portrait. On the mask the hairs of the 
head, eyelashes, moustache, and beard, still adhere to the 
plaster, and are a reddish-brown or auburn colour, corres- 
ponding with the portraits by Jansen, and in some measure 
with that of the Stratford bust. It was objected that the 
hairs could scarcely be so repeated on a cast. This has fre- 
quently occurred in my own experience, and is very easily 
explained. On taking a mould of the head of Dr. King, 
at the request of the late Lady Noel Byron, I found several 
hairs adhered to the plaster, and reappeared on the cast, and 
bo also in other cases. These hairs in the cast of Shaks- 
pere's face are an additional corroboration of the possible 
temperament and complexion, and, if genuine, an argument 
against the truth of the Chandos. Botli cannot be genuine. 
It was the custom in those days to take faithful impres- 
sions of the faces of the nobility, and probably in some 
cases in wax, which may account for the marked and cha- 
racteristic features on many of the monuments of the 
period, as seen in those of Sir Thomas Lucy and his family 
in Charlecote Church. The cast in the British Museum 
was probably taken from a mould of wax, and certainly by 
an experienced artist ; which accounts for the sharpness of 
the work, the clearness of the outlines, the flesh-like ap- 
pearance of the surface, and the undisturbed hairs imbedded 
in the moustache, and tuft on the chin. There are mark- 
ings of the workman's tool on the surface of parts of the 
moustache and beard ; but there has been no mould taken 
from this cast, as is evident from the condition it presents, 
nor is it very likely that another cast was taken out of the 
"waste" mould. It has been suggested that the artist 
might work from this as a model, and then sell it. The 



8HAKSPERE AND ART. 23 

monument at Stratford could not possibly, as previously 
stated, be made from this cast, nor did it offer any sugges- 
tion to the tomb-maker. The body had so far Avasted, that 
the cartilages or nasal bones have been marked in the mould, 
and the eyes are sunken. 

The mask has a mournful aspect, and sensitive persons 
are affected by its apparent reality. It is said that Fanny 
Kemble, on looking at it, burst into tears. It is utterly 
destitute of the jovial physiognomy of the Stratford bust:, 
and it bears the impress of one who was gifted with a most 
extraordinary range of perceptive observation and ready 
memory, great facility of expression, varied power of enjoy- 
ment, much sensibility, and great depth of feeling. On the 
upper part of the forehead, near to the left side of the 
organ of Comparison, there is, I observed, a slight depres- 
sion, as if produced by a blow inflicting a wound on 
the skull at some early period of life. It has the ap- 
pearance likely to be presented after receiving a right- 
handed blow from a stick or falling body. Those of a 
lively fancy may recall the Fulbrooke deer-stealing, and 
the gamekeeper of Sir Thomas Lucy, as an explanation. 
I simply direct the attention of the curious to the 
cast in the British Museum in confirmation of the state- 
ment. Presuming that the whole head was organised in 
proportion to the frontal portion indicated in the mask, it 
would be a little above average, but not of the largest size 
and the favourable combinations of the observing powers, 
and sensibility would give extraordinary facility and 
executive skill ; and if not the cast from Shakspere, it is 
from one who could have succeeded in any department of 
practical art, science, mechanics, music, painting, sculpture, 
or literature. 

Phrenology is a severe test to apply, and the mask and 
the Jansen portraits pass the ordeal well and satisfactorily, 
while all the others fail in some essential feature or com- 
bination. 

The sides of the head in the cast are well developed, 
and are large. The perceptive faculties are still more 
decidedly marked in the size of their organs : thus Form, 
Size, Colour, Weight, Locality, Number, Order, Eventuality, 
Time, and Constructiveness,are all very large ; and Ideality, 
Wit, Language, Comparison, Causality, Benevolence, Venera- 
tion, Secretiveness, and Acquisitiveness, are large; while 



24 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 



Imitation, Wonder, and Alimentive- 
ness, are a little less indicated. 

The forehead belongs to that class 
of men who have shown extraordinary 
skill in dealing with the actual and 
the practical, rather than the abstract, 
either as philosophers, artists, states- 
men, or generals, such as Michael An- 
gelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Henry IV., 
Loyola, Luther, Poussin, Adam Smith, 
John Hampden, Selden, Audubon, 
Napoleon, and Washington. 

Shakspere was eminently practical, 
artistic, executive, and constructive, 
and only began to be dubious, ab- 
stract, or metaphysically theoretic, as 
he progressed in the development of 
his powers of mind and experience. 
He neither wanders with Plato in his Eepublic, nor with 
More in his Utopia, but takes the world as he finds it, with 
all its lights and shadows, and, with the intuition of genius, 
opens to view the human heart and its passions — their 
longings and conflicting aspirations, their varying and 
shifting phases, and pourtrays them with all the force of a 
profound psychologist. 




The face of 




the cast, like the Jansen portrait, has a 
sharp oval form ; that of the Stratford 
bust is a blunt or round one, as indicated 
by the respective illustrations. The chin 
is narrow and pointed, yet firm ; that of 
the bust well-rounded. The cheeks are 
thin and sunken in the cast ; in the bust 
and portrait full, fat, and coarse, as if there 
waa great vitality, and a 

"Good digestion waiting on appetite," 

without much thought, fancy, or feeling 
disturbing either. The mask has a fore- 
head finely formed ; the bust is ill-defi- 
ned ; and the Stratford portrait is still 
more t indefinite. The mask has a full- 
sized upper lip ; the bust a very large one, 
although Sir W. Scott lost his wager in 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 25 

maintaining that it was larger than his own; for it was 
demonstrated, by the application of the compasses, that the 
advantage in length of lip was on the side of the wizard — 
the worthy Knight of Abbotsford. The nose of the mask 
is large and finely indicated ; that of the bust is straight, 
short, and small. * The nostrils are slightly drawn up in the 
cast, — a feature exaggerated in the bust. Their ethnic phy- 
siognomies and cranial contours are utterly at variance with 
each other. The bust is a good example of the Teutonic 
face prevailing in the Warwickshire type. The mask is a 
union of the Xorman grafted on the Saxon stock — the 
aquiline nose and oval face are united with the long 
upper lip and fair complexion existing in a limited 
proportion of the inhabitants in the poet's native 
county, as slightly illustrated by the fine head of Sir 
Thomas Lucy. The cast indicates the man of keen obser- 
vation, quick perception, with great executive faculty. 
There would be a fine sense of physical and artistic beauty 
and fitness, with a sensibility that would make the original 
a man of emotion, feeling, and probably of suffering. The 
Stratford bust, on the contrary, bespeaks the man of ease, 
enjoyment, keen appetites, and self-satisfaction. There 
would be latent force of character in the bust, with much 
good nature, yet ever ready to give occasional outbursts of 
passion. In the portrait, there is a good vital constitution, 
with great tenacity of property ; cherishing the pleasures of 
life and existence. The mask and the Jansen portrait in- 
dicate the nervous sanguine temperament — the tempera- 
ment of genius ; the bust and the portrait the sanguine- 
lymphatic. There might be latent power to enjoy the 
productions of others, but there would be a lack of inspira- 
tion to create original idealisations of truth and beauty. 

The answer phrenology would give to those who still 
believe the Stratford portrait and bust are the true image 
of the bard, is — that the forms are impossible with a poet 
like Shakspere. Death does not alter the language once 
written on the ivory wall around the temple of thought by 
the hand of the Creator. A monumental effigy of Shak- 
spere, bearing the characteristics of the bust or the portrait, 
would deservedly become the scorn and scoff of future 
ages, for both artists and the general public are begimihig 
to perceive and appreciate the relation between given forms, 
capability, and character. 



26 SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

The relationship between organisation, capacity, and 
character, has long been a subject of investigation with 
me, and I have never yet found a case to controvert the 
great principles illustrated in the philosophy which assigns 
a distinct and separate organ for each faculty of the mind. 
Men of mark, men of thought, men of action, and those of 
special power, have alike been illustrative of this grand and 
important revelation of truth. 

"Men," says George Combe, "the great masters of paint- 
ing and sculpture, have been distinguished for high-nervous, 
or nervous-bilious, or nervous-sanguine temperament. Very 
rarely is a nervous-lymphatic temperament met with 
among them; and I do not recollect to have observed 
among them any one in whom the nervous was not present 
in a large proportion." Then why should Shakspere be an 
exception ? It would be more consistent for us to believe 
that he was a striking confirmation of the law, and that he 
had the advantage of a happy union of a well-balanced 
brain and a finely-constituted nervous system. Michael 
Angelo was a master of painting, sculpture, and architec- 
ture ; Da Vinci showed a genius not only for painting, but 
for music and engineering ; Shakspere was still more com- 
prehensive ; — and men of such kindred powers must have 
had some features in common, and they agree in the pos- 
session of a fine temperament, large perceptive powers, and 
a well-developed cerebral combination — the organisation of 
genius. 

Bfeeofcerg of portraits of §b|)akspet^s Jpamtlg. 

In the course of some recent enquiries about the 
descendants of Shakspere, I was incidentally made aware 
of the existence of a portrait, said to be that of Susanna, 
the daughter of the poet. On further investigation I found 
it belonged to the wife of an agricultural labourer residing 
a short distance from Stratford. The owner is a descend- 
ant of one of the Hathaways that first brought the picture 
from Shottery, on her marriage to a respectable and pros- 
perous tradesman at Darlingscot. This lady gave the 
portrait to her grand-daughter, Mrs. Attwood, who always 
told her children that the picture was invariably described 
aa "Susanna Hall, the daughter of Shakspere." She also 
stated that it was formerly sent by a relative from London 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 27 

to Shottery, and that it was not kept on account of its 
money value, but simply because it was a likeness of one 
of the family. 

Mrs. Attwood gave the portrait to her grand-daughter 
and godchild, Hannah Ward, while the latter was very young, 
and her mother, Mrs. Ward, brought the portrait away 
from Darlingscot to her house at Tiddington, where it 
has remained until lately. I have seen persons who have 
resided all their lives in the neighbourhood, where it has 
been known that this picture was in the possession of the 
Wards for more than thirty years, and was always consi- 
dered as a heir-loom from Shottery. Mrs. Attwood died in 
1S4S. aged 85 years, but her statements and testimony are 
still remembered by members of the family who are 
living in different parts of the comity, whom I have 
visited, and whose statements agree with each other without 
the knowledge of these parties of the information obtained 
elsewhere. 

When Hannah Ward died, she left the portrait and 
other relics to her sister, the present owner. While the 
children of Mrs. Ward were young, they looked npon the 
picture with some degree of fear, for the portrait has a life- 
like appearance, and the eyes, having a direction different 
from the nose, the girls said '"the picture was always look- 
ing at them.'' and hence, dining a few years, its face was 
turned to the wall. 

During the recent Ter-centenary Festival, the portrait 
was brought to Stratford, and when placed by the side of 
two other portraits, which were formerly at the birthplace 
in Henley-street, I discovered a singular resemblance be- 
tween them in style, execution, and physiognomy, as if 
painted by the same artist. 

The two portraits referred to consist of a young lady 
and a gentleman, and are now in the possession of Mrs. 
James, grand-daughter of the Hornbys, who formerly occu- 
pied the house in Henley-street, the birthplace of Shakspere. 
The Hornbys were relatives of the Harts, who occupied the 
honse from the time of Shakspere's sister Joan, who was 
married to William Hart. The Hornbys bought the two 
portraits with other relics at a valuation in 1793, and they 
remained as tenants in Henley-street till 1820, and both, 
portraits and relics have remained till now in the possession 
of their daughter. They were executed in a style and size 



28 8HAKSPERE AND ART. 




SUSANNA HALL, DAUGHTER OF SHAKSPERE. 

far superior to pictures adapted to the lowly rooms in the 
birthplace, and the probability is, they once belonged to 
Shakspere's family at New Place, and on the death of Mrs. 
Hall, or on the sale of the premises, were transferred to the 
nearest relations of the deceased, who were the Harts in 
Henley-street. No one can say with any certainty whom 
the pictures represent, but there was a tradition that they 
came from another branch of the family, and that they re- 
present Dr. Hall and his wife. 

Both the pictures are fine old paintings, in oval, carved, 
gilt frames, alike in size and pattern, and executed with 
considerable breadth and skill, in the style of Sir Peter 
Lely. The gentleman is pourtrayed with the fall flowing 
wig, rich single-breasted coat, and cravat of the period, 
similar to other portraits of that day by the same artist. 
Now, the singular fact to be noticed here is — not only that 
the Susanna portrait is in an oval frame of the same size, 
with the pattern on the carving a little more elaborate, 
but that when placed by the side of the female portrait 
from Henley-street, the pictures present the appearance of 
being two likenesses of the same person taken at different 
periods of life, or one represents the daughter of the other. 
In look, complexion, pose, and both in facial and cranial 
contour, they are portraits of the same person, differing in 
age, and but slightly in costume. The portraits present 
fine intelligent features, high square foreheads, and graceful 
and handsome proportions. There is the aquiline contour, 
long upper lip, and temperament of the mask and the 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 29 

Jansen portraits. The existence of the Susanna portrait 
has remained unknown, except to a few, until the present 
time ; the other two portraits have been seen by many 
thousands. 

It is a remarkable fact that not only the features of the 
two females resemble each other, but that the three have a 
strong family likeness ! This has been observed by others 
whose attention has been since drawn to this peculiarity. 

It has been suggested that the two portraits from Henley- 
street are probably those of Dr. Hall and his wife Susanna 
before she was married, and that the picture recently dis- 
covered is a likeness of the same lady at a later period of 
life. There is, however, another way of explaining the 
singular family resemblance in the portraits. One may be 
Dr. Hall and his wife, and the young lady their daughter 
Elizabeth. Or, is it possible that Mr. Nash, to whom the 
grand-daughter of Shakspere was first married, may be 
represented in the portrait of the gentleman ? I am 
inclined to rely on the tradition that has hitherto consi- 
dered it that of Dr. Hall, and that the young lady is Eliza- 
beth Hall, the daughter, who married Mr. Nash of Wel- 
come ; in that case, the recently-discovered portrait may be 
a likeness of the same lady at a later period of life, or a 
likeness of her mother. It is, however, very singular that 
while the portrait was in the possession of the Attwoods 
and the Wards, it was always designated "Susanna Hall, 
the daughter of Shakspere ;" and now, after an interval of 
two centuries, the portrait, when placed beside others from 
Henley-street, and probably New Place, clearly shows that 
it belongs to the same family group. 

Dr. Hall died in 1635, leaving his property to his wife 
and daughter. Susanna died 11th July, 1649." Elizabeth, 
the daughter, was married to her first husband, Thomas 
Nash, in 1626. She afterwards married Sir John Bernard, 
who was knighted by Charles II. in 1661. Lady Bernard 
died at Abington, near Northampton, in February, 1669-70. 

Now, from several well-established facts, it is known 
that Lady Bernard manifested great affection and regard 
for her relatives, the Harts in Henley-street, and. also for 
the family of her grandmother, the Hathaways of Shottery. 
By her will, Lady Bernard bequeathed legacies of forty and 
fifty pounds each to six members of the Hathaway family, 
thereby testifying to her respect for the memory of her 



30 SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

ancestor Anne Shakspere. She also left two houses in 
Henley-street — one of them the birthplace of her grand- 
father—to Thomas Hart, grandson of Shakspere's brother- 
in-law, William Hart ; and to her kinsman, Edward 
Bagley, citizen of London, she bequeathed the residue of 
her property". It is possible, and indeed probable, that 
Lady Bernard would take the portrait of her mother in 
preference to her own, and that the portrait of Susanna 
was part of the personal property conveyed to London, 
from whence it was ultimately sent to the Hathaway s at 
Shottery, and has remained in obscurity till the present 
day ; and when placed beside other portraits that have 
hitherto been treated with indifference and neglect, they 
all in a most singular and. unexpected way prove their 
relationship. 

This pedigree of the three portraits is a simple history 
of their existence in the families of the descendants of the 
Harts and the Hathaw T ays — of all persons the most likely to 
possess such relics. They have nothing about them indica- 
tive of the picture-dealer's restorations. They are portraits 
painted by the hand of a master, and are in a style suited 
to persons of wealth and condition beyond those living 
either in Henley-street or at Shottery. The height of 
each picture is, with the frame, 39 inches, and in breadth 
34 inches. They would not be purchased as ornaments, as 
they are too large for the walls of such tenements ; nor 
would they be bought on speculation, because the owners 
could never find purchasers for them as unknown portraits. 
It is more reasonable to consider them as heir-looms left 
among a family that has from various causes lost not only 
its former wealth and position, but also the associations by 
which the relics were once surrounded. 

The portrait called Susamia Hall belongs to persons un- 
acquainted with the value of pictures. The husband, an 
agricultural labourer, can only earn 10s. a-week, and when 
attending a thrashing-machine, a little more ; and being 
unable to read or write, he is not likely to know the impor- 
tance of the picture, either as a luxury, as a work of art, or 
as a Shaksperian relic ; and values it merely as a memento 
of his wife's family descent from the Hathaways of Shot- 
tery. As the pedigree of the Susanna portrait is traced 
back to the end of the 17th century, there is only a com- 
paratively brief period between the death of Lady Bernard 



SHAKSPERE AND ART. 61 

and the appearance of the portrait at Shottery ; after which 
I have, for the first time, traced it to Darlingscot, Tid- 
dington, Alveston, and now again at Stratford. As the 
three portraits have a strong family likeness, and as the 
Susanna portrait has a singular resemblance to the Jansens 
and to the mask, their similarity will be a strange and 
rather marvellous coincidence, if they are not likenesses of 
Shakspere's family. 

It may be asked — How is it that those who have devoted 
some thirty years attention to this subject have not hitherto 
discovered any connection between these portraits and the 
children of Shakspere ? The answer is, the portraits have 
never previously been compared with each other ; the 
Susanna has till now remained in obscurity, and unknown, 
and those from Henley-street have been viewed with pre- 
judice, or treated with indifference. They are still at 
Stratford to challenge investigation by the committee of 
the Shakspere Museum, where, if possible, these portraits, 
with their pedigrees, ought to be preserved, If I have 
succeeded in establishing the claims of those from Henley- 
street, or that from Shottery, to belong to the family of 
Shakspere, I shall be rewarded for the trouble which has 
been necessary to ascertain the facts establishing the 
authenticity of these interesting and beautiful portraits j 
which, if genuine, tend to confirm by their physiognomies 
the accuracy of the views already recorded in favour of the 
Jansen Portrait and the Mask of Shakspere. 

Qfyz IStijm'c ^jjptoponws of Maatfotcfesin're, 

As the facial contour of the two races of Warwickshire 
have been cited in reference to the portraits of Shakspere, 
an explanation may be necessary. It will be admitted 
that there are features so marked, distinct, and characteristic 
among men, that they may be classed under typical names, 
such as the Roman, the Grecian, the Aquiline, the Teuton, 
or the Celtic. These are some of the signs of racial 
origin, and easily distinguished. 

History tells us that the earliest inhabitants of Britain 
were the Belgse or Celtic, who were visited by the trade- 
venturers from the shores of the Mediterranean. The tide- 
wave of civilisation and power brought Csesar and the 
Roman Eagles to settle and brood on the island. The 



32 SHAKSPERE AND ART. 

result may be seen in the stern features, wiry frames, and 
cranial characteristics of those in whom the governing ele- 
ment is predominant. Although the Saxons ultimately 
gained the ascendant, the Roman legionaries remained 
long enough to establish their race and leave their blood 
behind them. The Northmen followed, bringing their 
lofty stature, their great strength and courage ; and then 
came the Norman as a second branch of the Norseman. 

The military adventurers who followed the fortunes of 
the Conqueror were mostly of Gothic extraction, the de- 
scendants of the military order who vanquished the 
Romans. These admixtures of the Celt, the Phoenician, 
the Teuton, and the Roman, have left a mixed people. The 
various elements were destined in process of time to amal- 
gamate and become a racial type ; and the Anglo-Saxon has 
a composite character, in which are found the well-known 
characteristics of Englishmen. The features become 
marked, prominent, and distinct, or otherwise, according as 
the original racial types unite, amalgamate, or separate. 

These various races, which have conjoined to form the 
English nation, appear to have met in the midland districts, 
and as the baronial castles of Warwick and Kenilworth 
would be awarded to the followers of the Conqueror, to 
make them lords over "tower and town," they would at- 
tract numerous dependants in their train ; these again 
would ultimately become blended with the Anglo-Saxon 
race, and will serve in some degree to explain the apparent 
anomalous facial contours seen in the Warwickshire 
people and their neighbours in the midland counties. 

The Mask said to be from the face of Shakspere does not 
possess the broad characteristics of the Warwickshire type. 
The majority of the people have the Anglo-Saxon or Teu- 
tonic physiognomy— a broad-set body, full face, long upper 
lip, straight or composite nose, hazel eyes, and auburn 
hair. There is, however, another though less numerous 
type, blending elements of the Norman with the 
Anglo-Saxon characteristics, where the aquiline feature in 
the nose unites with other traits in the long upper lip and 
fair complexion of the Teuton or Frisian race. These are 
the marked characteristics of the Jansen portrait, and the 
mask said to be taken from the face of the poet, and also 
belong to the portraits to which I have drawn attention as 
likenesses of the family of Shakspere. 



SHAKSPERE: 



OR, 



THE ARDENS OF WARWICKSHIRE; 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 



E. T. CRAIG. 
PART II. 

With Illujlrations. 




SHAKSPERE, 



From the Original in the possession of the Duke of Somerset, and 
painted from life by Jansen. 



34 



OT)e f^erttage of CStntus. 

fiKE Parents produce like Offspring all the world 
over, throughout the entire material creation ; on the 
earth, in the air, and in the ocean. The natural laws of 
succession are universal and unbending. Though subject 
to modification, they admit of no exceptions; indicating 
the levers whereby the physical and moral world of 
humanity may be raised to a higher phase of existence 
than ever yet known in the general condition of the 
people. Heritage and training lie at the foundation of 
all future evolutions of man's highest development. If 
the teachings arising out of this inflexible rule and 
uniform sequence in heritage were studied, man might 
discover a secret which, like the Rosetta Stone, would 
give two languages, having one significance, explaining 
the hieroglyphics of a third, and solving thereby the 
history of the past, while indicating a glorious pathway and 
brilliant future in the progress of civilisation. No law is 
so well illustrated in the faith and the habits of men. 
Many aspire to be reformers, make commendable experi- 
ments in schooling, and yet gaols have to be continued and 
enlarged. We shall have to antedate the schoolmaster, 
begin at generation, and learn how Fate can comport with 
freedom and individual liberty. Nature is a kind parent, 
but an inflexible teacher. Organisation governs the indi- 
vidual, yet leaves him free to modify external influences. 
The tusk of the elephant, the bill of the bird, and the 
brain of man, determine the sphere of each. Parentage 
is the boundary line of dullness, as of genius. In the first 
germ of existence lies the secret of the mystery ; growth 
is but the aggregation of cell-life ; yet the resulting differ- 
ence is very great — the solution lies in the quality or con- 
dition of the molecules. 

The naturalist, the botanist, and the physiologist, are 
fatalists in their faith in the law of heritage. The farmer 
knows that the seed he scatters in the ground will be fol- 
lowed by the like in species and quality. The moss that 
grows on the mouldering castle walls, and the acorn falling 
in the forest, are alike subject to this sequence in kind. The 
fern is ever the monarch of the moors, and the oak king of 
the forest. It is true no tillage can succeed alike with bad 



THE HERITAGE OP GENIUS. 35 

as with good seed ; you may dwarf the one or stint the 
other, or improve, within the range of healthy vitality, 
either one or both. And so it is in the animal kingdom ; 
in the horse, the ox, the sheep, and the dog ; in form, 
colour, inclination, and temper ; in excellence or defect, — 
the law impresses itself. Blood, or breed, is everything. 
A pair of Shetland ponies would never generate a racer or 
a hunter. A Devon may unite with the Alderney, and 
both shall be evident in the progeny, which will, neverthe- 
less, differ from each. You may shorten the legs or im- 
prove the wool of the mountain sheep, by crossing the 
breed. The persistent and vicious mastiff, the dull un- 
teachable greyhound, the cunning collie of the shepherd, 
and the intelligent Newfoundland dog, are all of one race, 
brought into these different varieties by causes operating 
through many generations. Conditions are modified by a 
union among congeners ; but the alteration is still another 
illustration of the law. The farmer avails himself of the 
principle to improve his stock, and obtains beautiful forms 
and useful qualities of bone, muscle or nerve ; but he never 
expects rigs from thistles, swans from ducklings, or wheat 
from clover. Every tree, too, has its own special physiog- 
nomy — the gnarled oak, wide spreading cedar, graceful 
ash, or weeping wallow ; and each propagates its kind. 

In the mightiest monarch, as well as in the humblest 
citizen, the great law of heritage is manifest, and runs 
through every gradation of man's existence. All races of 
men, and even nations and tribes, whether the Asiatic 
Brahmin, or Hindoo ; the African Negro, or Arab ; the 
European Italian, Spaniard, German, or French — they all 
have their special individual types in feature, physiognomy, 
and character. The Gypsies and the Jews, in every age, 
have been wanderers in many lands ; and, marrying among 
their own people, preserve their dark epidermis and choco- 
late complexions, and are known as soon as seen. The 
Zingari is always a tramp and a tinker ; the Jew, as much 
a traveller and money-changer among modern nations as 
when the usurers were scourged from the Temple of old. 
Denizens in lands with the richest soils, the Jew never tills 
the ground for subsistence. 

Not only do striking differences exist among races and 
nations, but among people of the same tribe and kindred. 
Though there is a general similitude in the same family, 



36 



SHAKSPERE : OR, 



and one brother may be distinguished by another, the son 
by his resemblance to his father or mother, or both, yet each 
will have his own peculiar features and turn of mind. I 
have seen twins alike in every feature of face and bodily pro- 
portions, yet in taste and inclination there were differences. 

This hereditary transmission of features is strikingly 
illustrated in the families of reigning dynasties, and among 
the nobility ; as in the Bourbons and the House of Austria, 
in which the thick lip introduced by the marriage of the 
Emperor Maximillian with Mary of Burgundy, is a promi- 
nent feature in their descendants through the generations of 
300 years. 

Tacitus describes the Gauls as gay, volatile, and precipi- 
tate ; prone to rush into action, but without the power of 
sustaining adversity and the protracted tug of strife. And 
this is the character of the Celtic portion of the French 
nation, down to the present day. From Cressy to Waterloo 
we find them the same, brave and impulsive, rather than 
slow, persistent, and determined, like their neighbours ; yet 
more perceptive and artistic. The modern Germans may 
be described as in the days of Csesar — a bold, prudent, and 
virtuous people, and possessed of great force. The Briton 
is still cool, considerate, sedate, persistent, and intelligent. 
The Irish form a marked contrast to the Scotch — the first 
hasty, irritable, pugnacious, and improvident ; the second, 
cautious and canny, shrewd, calculating, and prudent. 

The same law is illustrated in the heritage of disease. 
No fact in medicine is better established than that which 
proves the transmission from parents to children of a con- 
stitutional liability to pulmonary affections. I have known 
instances of families of several children, where they have, 
in some cases, died before maturity, and in others, before 
middle life, from this hereditary weakness. Dr. Cooper, 
describing the predisposing indications, mentions — "par- 
ticular formation of body, obvious by a long neck, promi- 
nent shoulders, and narrow chest; scrofulous diathesis, 
indicated by a very fine clear skin, fair hair, delicate rosy 
complexion, thick upper lip, a weak voice, and great sensi- 
bility." This law of hereditary transmission of organisation, 
and succession of form and qualities, is manifested also in 
the mental aptitudes and moral tendencies of children, and 
shows that the intellectual character of each child is deter- 
mined by the particular qualities of the stock, combined 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 37 

with those conditions which predominated in the parents 
when existence commenced. 

Parents frequently live again in their offspring, not only 
in countenance and form of body, but also in the mental 
and moral disposition — in their virtues and their vices. 
Reformers are generally too hasty and impatient in their 
efforts at improvement. The secret of modifying- mankind is 
hut partially understood, nor is it wisely applied ; and yet it 
is a principle powerfully active and very manifest. Great 
alterations are of slow growth, and most effectively attained 
by propagation. Three generations, under favourable 
circumstances, are necessary to effect predisposition or 
mental tendency. A knowledge of human nature, imparted 
by a study of Physiology, Ethnology, and Phrenology, would 
indicate the true course, and give intelligent guidance. To 
see evils and deprecate their existence, is not adequate to 
the apprehension of the causes ; these lie deeper than 
existing illustrations. As is the parentage, so is the off- 
spring. In improving one we shall advance the other ; and 
small influences operating constantly through many genera- 
tions, would necessarily produce marked and conspicuous 
changes in mankind, — both in the size, external figure, 
countenance, and complexion ; and lastly, in the mental 
aptitudes and moral proclivities. If the stock is bad, edu- 
cation under favourable influences will improve it, but never 
succeeds so well as with the offspring of the intelligent. I 
have had peculiar opportunities for observing this fact : in one 
case at Ralahine in the South of Ireland, where I resided 
among the native peasantry, with the object of effecting their 
physical and moral improvement by the educational agency 
adopted. Invited thence by Lady Noel Byron to orga- 
nise what was then an untried scheme — the agricultural and 
industrial labour system — I introduced a modification of the 
plans of Fellenberg, with which I became familiar while resi- 
dent at Hofwyl, in Switzerland. To carry out Lady Byron's 
wishes, and with her ladyship's resources, I established the 
first successful, agricultural labour school in this country. 
This became the exampler and foundation of the methods 
adopted, and now useful and successful, in all our 
reformatories — in alternating manual work with mental 
exertion. In these operations I had facilities for observing 
the varied aptitudes of the pupils. Similar opportunities 
for observation occurred among some of the students of 



38 SHAKSPERE : OR, 

twenty classes organised in connection with the Rotherham 
Literary and Mechanics' Institute — showing in many in- 
stances that aptitude, tendency, and even moral dispositions 
are intimately connected with heritage derived from one or 
both parents. 

I have always found the educational efforts of the offspring 
of the ignorant, lymphatic and lazy, less apt, more slow 
and dull, than the children of the intelligent, active, and 
industrious. Hereditary paupers breed paupers. Idleness is 
in their bones, apathy in their brains, and vacuity in their 
visages. 

A general co -mixture of the temperaments is most bene- 
ficial. Facts show that the nervous and sanguine impart 
susceptibility and activity ; the bilious the power of action ; 
and the lymphatic that tendency to inaction and rest which 
is essential to the healthful nutrition of the brain after 
fatiguing exertion. How can this knowledge become useful ? 
By impressing the truth on those likely to be the men and 
women of the future. As scrofula and insanity are heredi- 
tary, so surely temperaments are hereditary. Family por- 
traits indicate family features, and also family temperaments ; 
and those who value the interests and happiness of them- 
selves and their offspring, will subscribe the marriage con- 
tract with another of somewhat different temperament. 
From sluggish temperaments those of an active character 
rarely descend; from the nervous-sangnine in man and 
woman, we usually find the same combination in the off- 
spring. If the portrait of Shakspere by Jansen, or the 
portrait said to be Susanna Hall, which I discovered in the 
possession of a descendant of the Hathaways, or the Mask 
said to be taken from the face of Shakspere after death, be 
faithful likenesses, then the poet was endowed with a 
nervous-sanguine temperament. 

When two persons are united in whom the same kind of 
temperament prevails, it is not only found in the issue, but 
in greater strength, and its energy is more intense. The inter- 
marriage of the purely nervous is often followed by delicate, 
ricketty, and weakly offspring, and there is a hard battle 
to be fought for a tolerable lease of life ; while the continued 
intermarriage of the lymphatic would ultimately result in 
the fatuous' or idiotic. On the union of mingled tempera- 
ments, we generally find those temperaments blend in the 
offspring With the happiest results to health, vigour, vitality 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 39 

and longevity. It is a well-established fact, that the dis- 
tinguished men whose talents make them conspicuous in 
the cabinet, the camp, or the closet, have had either the 
nervous-bilious, or the nervous-sanguine temperaments. 
Temperament is also an element in good taste. The nervous, 
sanguine, and bilious, by giving fineness to the substance 
and vivacity to the action of the brain, are highly conducive 
to refinement. Those authors and artists whose productions 
are conspicuous for great delicacy and beauty, have fine 
temperaments, and large perceptive powers, combined with 
Ideality. We find examples of the active temperaments in 
Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, William 
the Norman, Cromwell, Napoleon, Mazzini, and Garibaldi. 
The poets have a large share of the nervous temperament, as 
shown in the portraits of Tasso, Dante, Alfieri, Pope, Cor- 
neille, Moliere, Voltaire, Pope, Shelley, Keats, Campbell, 
Lamartine, and Tennyson. So among artizans — those fond of 
simple and beautiful decorations to make their homes grace- 
ful attractions from grosser pleasures, will be found endowed 
with a large prorjortion of activity arising from the tempera- 
ment. And woman, who possesses more delicacy than man, 
more natural refinement of manner, has greater aptitude, 
and a keener appreciation of the elegancies of life. 

On the other hand, coarseness and gross habits more fre- 
quently co-exist with the opposite conditions. A lady once 
brought her servant, and requested me to state my opinion 
about her. After examining her facial and cranial contour, 
the relative proportions of her brain and her temperament, 
and finding a low r and peculiar organisation, a feeble con- 
dition of body, and a dull heavy apathetic aspect, — I told 
her the girl had the characteristics of a pauper, and would 
prove cunning, deceitful, and lazy. The lady expressed her 
surprise, and washed to learn how I coidd know", for she had 
obtained her from the workhouse. The girl had been the 
cause of the death of the cat. Every day the cream 
vanished, and she attributed it to puss. The cat was killed, 
and yet the cream still vanished. It w T as ultimately dis- 
covered that the girl lapped the cream from the milk like a 
kitten, and left no sign on the basin ! What is bred in the 
flesh, will be manifest in the spirit. The sluggishness of the 
children of hei editary vagrants is notorious. Their brightest 
attribute is cunning. With a torpid nervous system, they 
vegetate rather than enjoy life w T ith vigour, and their dull 



40 



SHAKSFERE : OR, 




LYMPHATIC temperament.— (Photographed from life.) 
The perceptive region is small, as indicated by the short space between 
the ear and lower portion of the forehead, the form of which is like that 
given by the tomb-maker to the bust of Shakspere. Youths of this class 
are dull and slow in apprehension, and never succeed in artistic pursuits 
requiring great taste, sensibility, and executive skill. 

heavy aspect harmonises with these characteristics. They 
will live on the labours of others, rather than work out their 
own redemption from suffering, unless external influences 
help them upwards.* 

It is a well-established fact, that special idiosyncracies 
and eccentricities are also transmitted. Dr. A. Combe states, 
that "when an original eccentricity is on the mother's side, 
and she is gifted with much force of character, the evil 
extends more widely among the children than when it is on 



* The same names may be seen constantly recurring in workhouse 
Looks for generations ; that is, the persons were born and brought 
up, generation after generation, in the conditions which make paupers. 
The close observer may safely predict that such a family, whether 
its members many or not, will become extinct ; that such another 
will degenerate morally and physically. But who learns the lesson ? 
-Notes on Nursing, by Florence Nightingale. 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 41 

the father's side." The father and Iris stock will give the organs 
of vitality and the complexion, while the mother imparts the 
mental and moral peculiarities,; and sometimes the reverse. 
A striking illustration of heritage may be found in a brief 
description of the father of Dr. Johnson, which very forcibly 
indicates the source of the great lexicographer's .peculiar 
strength and eccentricities. "Michael Johnson," says the 
biographer of the author of Rasselas, "was a man of 
large athletic make, and violent passions ; wrong-headed, 
positive, and at times afflicted with a degree of melancholy 
little short of madness." In this brief sketch we may trace 
the heritage of Johnson's love of contention, his singular 
force of mind and character. It is said "his morbid 
melancholy had an effect on his temper ; his passions 
were irritable ; and the pride of science, as well as of a 
fierce independent spirit, inflamed him on some occasions 
above all bounds of moderation. Notwithstanding all his 
piety, self-government or the command of his passions in 
conversation, does not seem to have been among his attain- 
ments. Whenever he thought the contention was for superi- 
ority, he has been known to break out with violence, even 
ferocity." A morbid "melancholy was his constitutional 
malady, derived perhaps from his father, who was, at times, 
overcast with a gloom that bordered on insanity." 

Mental aptitudes are transmitted by descent through 
many generations, which serves to explain the greater quick- 
ness of the children in manufacturing districts in learning 
ingenious employments. The boys playing in and around 
Sheffield are broader from constructiveness and the neigh- 
bouring organs, than the children of the same class in the 
agricultural and fenny districts of England. Dr. Paterson, 
in speaking of the Phrenology of Hindostan, mentions a 
remarkable correspondence in this respect in the heads of 
the inhabitants of a small town on the banks of the Ganges, 
Fort Monghyr, which has been long noted for its superiority 
in cutlery, gun making, tools, and other articles the result 
of mechanical construction. Only those who have mechani- 
cal aptitude can succeed in these trades, and thus the best 
workmen become settled, and in the progress of ages a 
prominent faculty becomes marked in the organisation. The 
mechanical faculties are large, or active, and culture gives 
increased susceptibility. Like the strings of a musical 
instrument, exercise improves the quality of the tone. 



42 SHAKSPERE t OR, 

There are families in which musical, artistic, and other 
distinguishing talents, are hereditary for generations, and 
these aptitudes would continue if there was uniform obedi- 
ence to the law. We have the mathematical Herschels, 
the courageous and fighting Napiers, the analytical Gre- 
gories, the inventive Brunels, the constructive Stephensons, 
and the histrionic Kembles. 

Families and individuals are sometimes remarkable for 
particular defects, such as an inability to perceive colours. 
1 have known several illustrations of this peculiarity. One 
gentleman who cannot tell colours, describes his wife's green 
silk dress as scarlet. A youth apprenticed to a house painter 
could never select the right colours, and he had to leave the 
business. This defect is accompanied by a depression of 
the eyebrow, giving the opposite form to that of Vandyke, 
Rubens, and Titian. The memory of dates and places will 
be very weak in some families, and very retentive in others. 
I met an English gentleman in Paris who was obliged to 
have the assistance^ of a valet to enable him to return to his 
hotel. He lost his watch and top-coat through foigetful- 
ness of the places where he had left them. These deficien- 
cies arise from the moderate development and weakness of 
power in particular portions of the brain ; and, like other 
portions of the body, become hereditary. On the other 
hand, when all the conditions are favourable, we have the 
result embodied in talent or genius, as in the union of the 
Ardens and the Shaksperes. On the one side, eminently 
superior in the cerebral type and physical conformation ; 
and on the other, in vitality and energy, they united the 
highest advantages with the finest quality or temperament. 
The vascular and nervous systems predominated ; the one 
presiding over nutrition, extension, growth, and develop- 
ment ; the other being the foundation of the refined sensi- 
bilities, mental aptitudes, and intellectual power. 

The most illustrious men in every age have arisen from the 
classes likely, though ignorantly, to act upon the principle 
of a happy choice by intermarriage with other classes. The 
most eminent men of Greece were of obscure origin, and 
foreign female slaves gave birth to many of them. A Carian 
was the mother of TJiemistocles, and a Scythian of 
Demosthenes. The most striking examples of energy among 
our own aristocracy, were the first fruits of intermarriages 
with the healthy, rigorous offspring of the middle class, 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 43 

The Persian nobility have, by the selection of Circassian 
wives, eradicated their old coarse physiognomy, as seen in 
the Guebres, their progenitors. Many of the Spanish 
nobility illustrate the opposite results, from intermarriage 
among themselves. It is with mind as with the weapon of 
the warrior and the tool of the workman— temper is every- 
thing — and temper is intimately connected with tempera- 
ment and cerebral susceptibility. While the nervous are 
prone to be irritable ; the sanguine irascible and passionate ; 
the bilious slow, persistent, and often violent ; the lympha- 
tic are most inclined to inaction, and disposed to sail with 
the wind. Those of the apathetic constitution have seldom 
disturbed the current of events, either by their deeds, their 
negotiations, or their conquests. Talent they sometimes 
possess ; genius never. They float with the flood, or cast 
anchor till the returning tide ; they never go against the 
stream. 

The tomb-maker who built the bust of Shakspere at 
Stratford, was not aware of this important relation between 
form, capacity, and character ; while the picture by Jansen, 
the portrait of Shakspere's daughter, and the Mask said to 
be taken after death, all harmonise with the law of relation 
between form and capacity, power and results. 

Although it may be conceded that education and favour- 
able circumstances have great influence on organisations 
adapted to receive the rays of light and intelligence, and to 
make them manifest ; yet, no amount of culture will raise 
the idiot into a philosopher, or convert the sluggish off- 
spring of the feeble or the imbecile, into the highly-organ- 
ised sensitive child of genius. The transmission of aptitude 
is shown too in the fact, that the children of linguists, and 
those of mathematicians, learn languages and numbers 
sooner than those of uneducated parents. The children of 
musicians, when both parents are musically inclined, learn 
more easily than others ; and this susceptibility, when 
inherited during three generations, often results in the 
extraordinary powers called talent and genius. 

The biographers of Shakspere have hitherto attempted 
to explain the marvellous powers of the poet by the exter- 
nal influences with which he was surrounded, by what books 
he read, and where he resided. They mention his parents, 
it is true, but they almost ignore the heritage of his ances- 
try. They forget that many thousands have been sur- 



44 



SHAKSPERE '. OR. 



rounded by similar circumstances of nature, condition, and 
education ; but which no doubt contributed their due influ- 
ence on the mental organism of a highly sensitive character, 
derived from many generations of a superior stock, where 
the physical, the mental, and the moral elements were in 
harmonious proportions, as in the Ardens and the Shak- 
speres. 

Moral beauty of character, too, is dependent on this har- 
monious balance of the organic forces in the constitution, 
and especially so, in the just proportion between the various 
regions of the cerebral and the vital powers of the body. 
A vigorous and healthy organism that gives soundness to 
the bones, will fix its index in the complexion, impart a 
sparkling lustre to the eye, and give grace to the outline, 
the form, carriage, and expression. The face is thus the 
epitome of the body, repeating in miniature the inward 
emotions ; and every organic action is pleasing from its 
truth, directness, and fitness of expression in the body and 
mind. 

It is a just remark of an able writer who says, that — 
" The union of certain temperaments and combinations of 
mental organs, are highly conducive to health, talent, and 
morality in the offspring ; and that these conditions may be 
discovered and taught with far greater certainty, facility, 
and advantage, than is generally imagined." 

When, however, the sensitive, nervous organisation of a 
race or family is developed into the highest state of sensi- 
bility and refinement, ending in talent, eccentricity, and 
genius, the vitality becomes weak and effete, and the race 
dies out in a generation or two, as in the case of Shakspere, 
Milton, Corneille, Scott, Burke, Byron, Moore, Mozart, and 
many others, whose names are known no more among men. 
Scott, like Shakspere, was desirous of founding a family, 
but the name and inheritance passed to female descend- 
ants. Our greatest poet had only one son, who died early ; 
his daughter, Susanna Hall, had one girl, and she died 
childless. The explanation must be sought in the fact, that 
in men of high culture and sensibility, the physical and 
the vital parts of the human organism are sacrificed to the 
nervous — the brain is exercised at the expense of the body, 
and exhausted in the very manifestations by which the 
poet or artist becomes known, and by which he influences the 
world. Their works become their best effigies. There is an 



THE HERITAGE OF GEXIUS. 45 

important lesson in this uniform result. Nature, as positive 
as fate, will not tolerate a succession of geniuses in the 
same family ; a great soul shines like a fixed star in the 
intellectual firmament ; she is satisfied, records the name, 
closes the registry, and seals the book. 

Lord Byron was a memorable instance of this inflexible 
law. He was the son of a man of strong and wayward pas- 
sions, and a mother equally impulsive and eccentric. 
In the heritage of his family we may find the seeds of 
his ardent passions, the elements of his character and 
his genius. He was the son of Captain John Byron, of 
the Guards, and Catherine Gordon, heiress of George 
Gordon, the descendant of Sir William Gordon, the 
third son of the Earl of Huntly, by his Countess the 
Princess Jane Stuart, daughter of James I. of Scotland. 
His paternal grandfather was the celebrated Admiral John 
Byron, whose account of his shipwreck and sufferings is one 
of the most interesting books of its kind in the English 
language. Byron's father was one of the most handsome 
and most profligate men of his day, and was called " Mad 
Jack Byron." He seduced Amelia, Marchioness of Car- 
marthaen, daughter of the Earl of Holderness ; whom, 
on being divorced from her husband, he married. 

Originally of Normandy, the first of the family came 
over with William the Conqueror. Doomsday Book 
mentions Ralph de Burun as holding lands in Nottingham- 
shire. His descendants were feudal barons of Horestan, in 
Derbyshire, and they became possessed of the lands of 
Rochdale, in Lancashire, in the reign of Edward I. New- 
stead Abbey was, in the reign of Henry VIII., conferred 
on Sir John Byron, who was also Constable of Nottingham 
Castle, and Master of Sherwood Forest. Two of the poet's 
ancestors distinguished themselves at the siege of Calais, 
and were found among the slain at Cressy. Another 
brother fought on the side of Richmond at Bosworth 
Field. The Byrons adhered to the cause of Charles I., 
and Sir John Byron had the charge of the escort which 
conveyed the plate contributed by the University for the 
royal use. At Edge Hill seven brothers of the family 
fought on the side of the king. 

A grand-uncle, the fifth Lord Byron, and his immediate 
predecessor, was a very passionate man, and killed his cousin, 
Mr. Chaworth, in a duel fought in the dark, and was tried 



40 SHAKSPEEE : OR, 

by the House of Peers for manslaughter, found guilty, 
pleaded his privilege, and was discharged. Captain Byron, 
the father of the poet, was a widower, deeply in debt when 
he married the " bonny Miss Gordon," of Gight, and as the 
rhyme indicated — 

"To squander the lands o' Gight awa'." 

The property of the lady, worth about £23,500, was all 
wasted by the end of the second year of the marriage, and 
a separation then took place between them. 

The mother of the poet was quick in her feelings, violent 
in her temper, and strong in her affections. She had a 
comely countenance, was somewhat diminutive in size, and 
inclined to embonpoint. In these brief outlines we have the 
sketch and the heritage of the " Author of Childe Harold." 
The poet became united to Miss Millbanke who was endowed 
with a highly sensitive nervous constitution and tempera- 
ment. t She had great delicacy and susceptibility, conjoined 
with large endowments in the moral and intellectual regions 
of the brain, a finely organised system, indicated by her 
refined and delicately moulded features, and in the struc- 
ture of her beautiful hands ; so nobly open and generous in 
acts of judicious benevolence and charity, bespeaking the 
exquisite susceptibility of her heart. * Their only child, 
Ada, whom Byron feelingly apostrophises in one of his 
most passionate utterances, was, in the lower part of the 
features, her large brain and her tendency to embonpoint, 
very like the poet, and in the form of her forehead like 
her mother.-]- 

The poet asks her — 

Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child — 

Ada ! sole daughter of my house and heart ? 
When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled, 
And then we parted — not as now we part. 

* " A lady who devoted the summer and the autumn of her days 
to the steady and systematic practice of wholesale charity in the 
highest sense, and whom many a poor curate's family, and many a, 
poor reformatory child, will have reason to bless to the end of their 
<la,ysi."—Londo?i Daily Paper. 

t Lord Byron wrote upon a proof sheet of Marino Faliero, 
"Ada, all but the mouth, is the picture of her mother, and I am 
glad of it." 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 



■17 



She was, when I knew her, buoyant, hearty, and energetic, 
with an independent and inquisitive spirit ; endowed with 
warm affections, a vigorous mind, and a strong will — 
marks of the stock from which she sprung. She was rather 
tall, handsome, and elegant in her manners ; endowed 
with great capabilities, and possessed high attainments as 
a linguist and a musician. She was a frequent and early 
visitor at the Agricultural School at Ealing Grove, to 
watch the progress of the experiment so useful in proving 
the practicability of combining industrial training with 
mental culture, in schools for the middle and working- 
classes. A lively interest was manifested by her in the 
progress of the boys, and especially in that of a fine dark 
eyed boy, nine years of age, about whom she always 
enquired during her stay. Both in the physiognomy of the 
features and the manifestation of the character, I was often 
reminded of Byron ; and, like him, she died at the early 
age of thirty-seven. 

After the death of Ada, then the Countess of Lovelace, 
her eldest son left home and the proud towers of East 
Horsley. He was content to earn his daily subsistence by 
the sweat of his brow in the iron ship-building yard of Mr. 
Scott Russell at Blackwall. At an early age he entered the 
Royal Navy, but soon left it. He then attempted to enter 
as a common sailor before the mast of a merchant vessel 
trading with America. Afterwards, he entered the shop of 
the millwright as a mechanic. But Lord Ockham, Baron 
Wentworth, the grandson of the author of " Childe 
Harold," enjoyed only a brief existence among the living, 
as he died at the early age of tweuty-six ; showing in the 
short story of his life, that genius and eccentricity were 
nearly related. 

Poetry, Sculpture. Painting, and Music, are peculiarly 
dependent on special organisations, united to fine tempera- 
ment. Dugald Stewart and others, erroneously hold that 
talent and genius for these arts are the " result of acquired 
habits, and gradually formed by particular habits of study 
or of business." But the maxim is founded in truth which 
says, Poets are born, not made ; although study and fitting 
outward circumstances are necessary to their full develop- 
ment and expression. Activity, sensibility, and fineness of 
appreciation — or acuteness of perception — must be combined 
as the foundation for ultimate success ; and these attributes 



48 SHAKSPERE ! OR, 

depend on the due proportion and quality of the nervous 
organism, whatever may be the outward influences. 
Mozart, when four years old, began to write music which 
was found to be in strict accordance with the rules of com- 
position, although he had received no instruction in them ; 
and Shakspere's magnificent productions read as if they 
had emanated from him like splendid intuitions — the giant 
strokes of genius. 

To form a great poet or artist, requires, therefore, a fine 
constitution and an active temperament ; a large brain, or 
full endowment of the propensities and moral sentiments, 
with a large perceptive region, and good, large, or active 
imaginative and constructive faculties. Truth, simplicity, 
and force are the result, as seen in the beautiful creations of 
genius. This beauty in art is the effect of mental growth. 
Poetry is the language of passion idealised and beautified ; 
painting and sculpture are silent poetry, embodying and 
surrounding form and colour with refined sentiment ; while 
music is the utterance of poetic and passionate expression. 

All races write their history in their greatest national 
works, and in which we see prominent features of their 
character. The idols of the East ; the pyramids and 
sphynxes of Egypt ; the temples of the Greeks, in their 
simple grandeur ; the arch, of the Komans, in its solid 
strength ; and the railways, as well as the political institu- 
tions of England, are all epic passages in history, and mark 
great epochs in the progress of nations. Shakspere is 
one of the highest phases of the English character. All 
that we know of his private history, stamps him so 
thoroughly the Englishman, that we enjoy his massive, 
vital, and tender creations, with a hearty sense of their 
nationality : his courageous independence ; his desire for 
fame ; his love of work, and his success ; his wise return 
from the applause of theatres and courts, to the loved wood- 
lands and meadows of Warwickshire, watered by the slow 
moving Avon, on the banks of which he had often wandered 
to seek inspiration : even the escapades of his youth, his 
ardent love for the fair and gentle Anne Hathaway, his 
chase of those "dappled fools," the deer of Fulbrook, 
together with his bold venture upon the metropolis, — all 
combine to arrest attention, win the heart's sympathy, and im- 
part a deep interest in the heritage of the Shaksperes and the 
Ardens. While his biographers wonder where he obtained 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 49 

his " little Latin and less Greek," his knowledge of law, 
history, biography, &c, I shall endeavour to evolve the 
mystery of his racial character and his genius from the 
pedigree of his parents, and offer it as the best solution of 
many of the problems which have puzzled those who taste 
and judge of the waters of the river, yet neglect the sources 
in the springs flowing from the distant mountain tops. 

HISTORY and HERITAGE of the ARDENS, 

ANCESTORS OF SHAKSPEKE. 

#ne of the most illustrious examples of heritage, of trans- 
mission of qualities, aptitudes and capacity, mental 
and physical, is shown in the history of some of the promi- 
nent members of the maternal ancestry of Shakspere — the 
Ardens of "Warwickshire. No one has yet attempted to 
trace the maternal ancestry of the poet beyond the immedi- 
ate progenitors of Mary Arden ; nor has any biographer 
attached due importance to the question of heritage. 

We have strong historic evidence of the origin of the 
surname of Arden, and are also justified in assuming that 
there is strong presumptive evidence in the possession of 
property in and around the Forest of Arden, and in the 
name itself, that the root of the family is the same. There 
are not the like difficulties surrounding the maternal ances- 
try of the poet as in the case of the Shaksperes, for, as Mr. 
Halliwell observes, notwithstanding the "laborious re- 
searches repeated for a century, the history of our poet's 
descent is still miserably imperfect. If genealogical 
inquiries are ever worthy of pursuit, they must have some 
value in the reasonable curiosity to ascertain from what 
class of society the greatest author of the world arose." It 
is not only to ascertain the class, but the quality of the class 
that I aim to investigate. 

Of the ancestors of Shakspere's father but little is known, 
beyond the fact that John Shakspere was the son of a 
yeoman and farmer of Snitterfield, tenant of Eichard Arden 
of Wilmcote, the residence of the Ardens. 

The name of Shakspere, spelled in various ways, appears 
repeatedly in the pages of a valuable illuminated black and 
red letter volume in the possession of Mr. Staunton, of 
Longbridge House, near Warwick, entitled a Eegister of 
the Guild of St. Anne of Knolle, from 1407 to its dissolution 



50 SHAKSPERE : OR, 

in 1535. This Guild of St. Anne had a priest who said 
masses for them ; he was a chantry priest, paid by 
the Guild. Some branches of the Shaksperes must 
have been in good circumstances, and they no doubt paid 
good fees to get their prayers recited, and their names 
recorded in these venerable registers of vellum — pious 
mementoes of their missals and their money. From the 
interesting pages of the volume I copied the following 
names of Shakspere : — 

14.60. Pro anima Ricardi Shakfpere et Aliciae uxor ejus, de 
Woldiche. 

1464. 4 Edw. IV. — Johannes Schakespere, and Radufphus 
Shakefpeire & Ifabella his wife ; and Ricardus Schak- 
fpere de Wrofale and Margeria his wife : and, alfo, 
Johannes Shakespeyre, of Rowington, and his wife. 

1476. Thomas Chacfper et Chriftian of Rowneton. 

i486. 1 Henry VII. — Thomas Schakfpere afks the monk to 
pray for his foul : and in the fame year Thomas Shak- 
fpere prays for his own foul. 

During the fame year Thomas Shakfpere, and Alicia 
his wife, of Balfale, afk the monk to pray for them. 

19 of Hen. VII. — Orate pro anima Ifabelle Shakfpere, quon- 
dam Priorifsa de Wroxale. 

3 Hen. VIII. — Alicia Shakefpere and Thomas Shakefpere, 
of Balifhalle. Alfo, Chriftophorus Shakefpere, and 
Ifabella his wife, of Pacwode. And in the 18th of 
the fame reign, the prieft was afked to pray for the 
fouls of Domina Jane Shakfpere ; Ricardus Shakfpere 
and Alicia his wife ; Willielmus Shakfpere and Agnes 
his wife 5 Johannes Shakfpere and Johanna his wife. 

We thus find that the Shaksperes were located in War- 
wickshire, not far from Stratford and Wilmcote, as early as 
the fourteenth century ; and the name appears at various 
times in connection with families and transactions at War- 
wick, Rowington, Wroxall, Hampton, Lapworth, Kineton, 
and other parts of the county. There are a few families of 
the name still existing — one at Warwick, others in Stafford- 
shire, and elsewhere ; but there is no satisfactory evidence 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 51 

that they are descended from the poet's family. George 
Shakspere, of Henley in Arden, claims to be so related. 

The little that is known of John Shakspere, father of the 
poet, is highly favourable to his character, both as illustra- 
tive of his good nature, in his kindness to his brother 
Henry, as well as of his public spirit ; for, when appointed 
to the office of bailiff, he was a warm patron Of the players, 
the best public teachers at the time ; and he would pro- 
1 mbly take his son William both to see the performances at 
the Guildhall, and to witness the revels at Kenilworth ; 
becoming thereby an educator of the youth for his future 
brilliant career as the greatest dramatist the world has yet 
seen. 

John Shakspere, when young, was no doubt comely in 
person, and fair to look on ; for he courted and won the 
beautiful Mary Arden, the youngest and favourite daughtei 
and executor of Robert Arden ; or, as she was tersely desig- 
nated in the drafts of the grant of arms in 1696 and '99, 
" one of the heyrs of Robert Arden of Wilmcote, Gent." 

The identity of Robert Arden as the grandson of Robert 
the third brother of the knight of the body-guard of Henry 
VII., has not yet been clearly proved, but that the family 
was the same is of the highest probability. There was no 
other family of Arde.ns, and the shield of the first draft of 
arms existing in the Herald's office makes them agree. 
Wilmcote and New Hall are both in the Forest of Arden. 
We find, too, that on 17th July, 1550, a deed was executed 
by Robert Arden, maternal grandfather of Shakspere, con- 
veying lands and tenements in Snitterfield, then in the occu- 
pation of Richard Shakspere, in trust for three daughters, 
after the death of Robert and Agnes Arden. Ten days 
previously he had executed a similar deed conveying other 
property in Snitterfield, for the benefit of three other 
daughters, Jocose, Alicia, and Margaret. The Ardens had 
been landed proprietors for more than a century before the 
marriage of Shakspere' s grandfather, Robert Arden ;— 
owning lands cut off, no doubt, from larger estates for 
younger sons, as in the case of Arden and Bagot, Arden 
and Adderley, Bracebridge and Willington. These posses- 
sions may be taken as strong evidence of the relationship 
to the great Arden family. Besides this, Mar}' - Arden was 
recognised in the Herald's office as belonging to the family. 
Although the notes of Dethick. King of Anns, are not to be 



52 SHAKSPERE : OR, 

relied on as to Shakspere's "antecessors," yet the error 
consists in ascribing the honours and rewards as conferred 
by Henry VII. to the "late antecessors" of John Shak- 
spere ; whereas they were given to the ancestor of the 
Ardens. This incidentally confirms the descent of Mary 
Arden. It is reasonable to conclude that Clarenceaux 
would not have declared Robert Arden a gentleman if he 
had not been such ; and therefore, other things con- 
sidered, a descendant of the Saxon Earles of Mercia. The 
mother of the poet may, therefore, when the collateral evi- 
dence is fairly and candidly reviewed, be traced by heritage 
through a long line of ancestors up to the time of the Anglo- 
Saxon Earls ;* many of them famous for wealth, position, 
and influence ; and moreover, celebrated for their noble 
integrity, firmness, patriotism, and firm determination to 
sustain and hold fast by whatever they considered righteous 
and just ; characteristics in living descendants of Shakspere's 
sister. We may hence with some reason assume that Mary 
Arden was not only handsome in form and fair in feature, 
but that she was mainly instrumental in transmitting to her 
son those exquisite sensibilities, moral and mental peculi- 
arities in capacity and character, which have made all the 
world worshippers of the memory of Shakspere. 

The mother of the poet, as a descendant of the Ardens, 
has a pedigree older and longer than the longest line of 
living kings ; and withal a history as worthy and as noble 
as the most famous of the world's proudest aristocracy. 
Mothers often exercise great influence in moulding both 
the physical constitution, and the mental character of their 
sons ; and a brief sketch of the Ardens will illustrate what 
has been already said on the heritage of genius. 

During the reign of Edward the Confessor, Aluuinus, 

* Rohund, Earle of Warwick, had a daughter Felicia, orPhillis, 
married to Guido or Guy, son of Siward, Baron of Wallingford. 
They had a son named Reyburn, father of Wegeot, or Weyth the 
Humid. He had a son named CJfa (about 975), who became a bene- 
factor to the monks of Evesham. His son was Wolgeot, whose 
hereditary successor was Wigod or Wigot, married to Ermenilda, a 
sister of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, husband of Lady Godiva, and 
founder of the monastery at Coventry. The son of Wigod was 
Alwin, Aluuinus, or Alwinus, contemporary with Edward the Con- 
fessor. Alwin was father of Turchil, the founder of the great Arden 
family, and governed Warwick for King William the Conqueror, 
till about 1070 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 53 

the father of Turchil, was Vicecomes, earl or deputy, of 
Warwick, for the king of Mercia. Turchil, the son, was 
Viceconies of Warwick at the time the Normans invaded 
England, and was the last of the powerful Saxon Earls, and 
the first of the Ardens. This family held some forty-eight 
estates in various parts of the midland counties. Ethelfleda, 
the courageous daughter of king Alfred, built a fortified 
dwelling on a mound near the Avon, and added a keep or 
dungeon ; from which has arisen the noble towers of the 
present castle of Warwick, built on a rock rising from the 
west bank of the river, and only a short distance from Off- 
church Bury, where Offa, king of Mercia, is said to 
have held his court. Turchil, son of Aluuinus, was lord of 
Warwick when Harold mustered his forces after his 
victory at Battlebridge, over Harfager the Norseman, and 
marched against Duke William the Norman to resist the 
invaders. But Turchil, who was probably a partisan of 
Edgar, the legitimate king, did not join the Saxons and 
Harold to repel the Normans — a circumstance which was, 
no doubt, remembered in his favour by the Conqueror, at 
least for a brief period. The rapacious Normans took pos- 
session of many of the castles and estates of the Saxons 
who opposed them, and Turchil compounded with the king 
for the title of Earl of Warwick during his life. The old 
chroniclers in their quaint way inform us that even those 
who did not muster their men at Hastings to oppose the 
Normans, were removed from their lands and possessions ; 
and declare also, that " it is evident to be seen what vast 
possessions the Conqueror did bestow upon those Normans, 
Britons, Anjovins, and other French, that assisted him the 
better in keeping of what he had thus by strong hand got ; 
and shall further crave leave, considering how vast a change 
this conquest made. And first, for his cruelties to the native 
English — 'tis evident that he spared not the very clergy, 
imprisoning Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, till he 
died, with many others : degrading divers Abbots, wasting 
the lands of Wolstan, Bishop of Worcester ; Walter, Bishop 
of Hereford ; and Frethric, Abbot of St. Albans ; compelling 
many of the nobility and others to forsake the kingdom ; 
forcing divers, as well priests as laymen, driven out of their 
possessions, to betake themselves to woods and deserts where 
they were constrained to live as savages, whereby there was 
scarce a great man left; all sorts of men being reduced to 



54 stiaksRere : or, 

such misery and servitude that it was a disgrace to he 
accounted an Englishman." * 

The castles, the curfew, and the taxes, subdued the spirit 
of the people. " The poor English were so humbled, that 
they were glad to imitate the Normans, even in the cutting 
their hair, and shaving their beards ; and to conform to the 
fashions of their new masters." 

Turchil Was ordered to enlarge and fortify the castle of 
Warwick ; but when this was done, the Norman king 
became doubtful and suspicious of the Saxon Thane, who 
was removed from his dignity. A Norman follower, Henry 
de Newburgh, was the first Norman advanced to the rank 
of Earl of Warwick. This no doubt led to the adoption of 
the name of Arden, for Turchil now first assumed the sur- 
name "from their residence in this part of the country, then 
as now called Arden by reason of its wodinesse. Not that 
Turchil or his descendants lived here ; for their principal 
seats were in other places, viz., Kingsbury, and Hampden 
in Arden, on this side the shire ; as also Eotley and Bad- 
burne on the other, while some male branches lasted ; but 
because this is the chief place which continued longest in 
the family, even till the late time, and was near to that 
where for the last 300 years they had their residence." 
Dugdale also says that Turchil " was one of the first here 
in England that, in imitation of the Normans, assumed a 
surname ; for so it appears he did, and wrote himself Tur- 
chillus de Eardene, m the days of King William Rufus." 

The Conqueror was a far-seeing, shrewd, practical, yet 
despotic reformer ; for the old historian M. Paris states, "in 
the year in which the Norman triumphed, he took with him 
some of the English nobilitie into Normandy, and married 
them to Norman ladies ; and in like manner did he marry 
divers English women to his Normans ; continually loading 
the people with heavy taxes, to the end they might have 
enough adoe in busying themselves how to live, rather than 
have any leisure to stir up commotions." William also 
brought over a number of Norman priests to preach sub- 
missiveness and reverence to the conquerors. 

The pedigree of the Ardens from the time of William 
the Conqueror to that of Mary Arden, stands thus : — 

* These severe measures of the Conqueror will explain the cause 
,,i the resistance of the Robin Hoods of this and subsequent reigns. 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 55 

Turkillus de Warwick =Levurania. 



Siwardus de Ardena. Osbertus de Arden = Matilda. 

I I 



Henrv de Ardena. Ainicia ux. Petri de Bracebrigge. 

I I 

"W ilham William de Bracebrigge. 



I 

Radulphus 

John 
Radulphus 



Thomas ., 

Thomas /( 

I 
Radulphus ,, 

I 
Henricus „ 

I Radulphus 

Radulphus .. 

Robert' ■ ( a H^- e vr) R ^ dul Phus 

Walter' , { I7 ig%I h ) Richa1 ^ 

John Arden, arm. pro corp. ] ~ | 

Regis Hen. VII., married John Bracebrigg, Alicia married 
Alicia, daughter of Richd. arm. obiit 23 Marti. John Arden. 
Bracebrigg. 7 Hen- VII. 

This John Arden had brothers and sisters — Martin, Tho- 
mas. Robert, Henrv, William, Alicia, and Margaret. It is 
assumed that Robert, the son of the above Robert, was Robert 
of Yoxall ; and that Ms son was Robert of Wellingcote, near 
Stratford, whose daughter Mary was the mother of Shake- 
spere, as stated in the grant of arms to John Shakspere 
in 1599, viz. :— 

Robert, brother of John Arden, had Robert of Yoxall, whofe 

fon was Robert of Wellingcote, the father of Mary, married 

to John Shakfpeare, the father of William Shakfpeare. 

By the above pedigree we find that Turchil* de Arden 

had by his first wife a son named Seward de Arden, 

and by his second wife Leverunia, he had Osbertus de 

Arden. fThese two sons were the founders of several of the 

* Turcliil, Tin-kit ell ns, Turkillus, otherwise Thorkill, are the same man, 
and the name evidently derived from Thor, of which many exist, as Thorold, 
the name of the father of Lady Godiva, of Buckendale, in Lincolnshire, and 
others. 

t The descendants of Osbert owned the old palace of the Saxon Eings at 
Kingsbury on the Tame, which must have descended to Thurchil from his 
ancestress Leonetta, daughter of king Athelstan — as the Bracebridges^of 
Eingsbury, Ardens of Pedimore, New Hall, Castle Bromwich, and Cud- 
worth, and now of Longcroft, near Rugeley, in Staffordshire. 



56 SHAK3PERE I OR, 

most note-worthy of the Warwickshire families, among 
whom the large and numerous estates of Turchil became 
apportioned and divided. Seward de Arden was not, how- 
ever, allowed to enjoy any large proportion of his father's 
lands ; the Norman Earl, Henry de Newburgh, had the 
greatest part assigned to him and his posterity. That portion 
which he was allowed to retain, was held by him and his 
posterity for military service, of the Earls of Warwick — 
showing that the Saxons who had not opposed the 
Normans were only allowed a portion of their posses- 
sions. This, no doubt, reduced the estates and the 
condition of the Ardens, but they still had large pos- 
sessions in the country ; and some of them have been 
held by the descendants of Osbert, son of Turchil, as 
the Bracebridges, the Adderleys of Hams, and Bagot of 
Pipe Hayes, all seated in the valley of the Tame, down to 
the present time. The ancestors of the Ardens held Bieton 
from the reign of Edward the Confessor till the time of 
Edward I. In the 7th of that king's reign, Thomas de 
Arden held it of the Earl of Warwick by the service of half 
a knight's fee. He was one of the benefactors to the monks 
of Stoneleigh Abbey, and gave them the church at Botley. 
Amicia, the daughter of Osbertus, son of Leverunia and 
Turchil de Arden, married Peter de Bracebrigge, of Brace - 
brigg, county Lincoln, from whom the Bracebridges of 
Kingsbury and Lindley, and of Atherstone, are descended. 
Sir Thomas Arden held Cudworth; and his grandson 
Giles had a daughter who married a Greville, from whom 
the Grevilles are derived. 

Henry Arden, brother of Sir John Arden, was the first 
of the family that occupied Park Hall. In the 48th of 
Edward III. he obtained grants of several manors, such as 
Crombe-Adam, Grafton-Flenorth and others. With this 
branch the Bracebridges had divided the vale of the 
Tame from Birmingham to Tamworth, in 1 100. Henry was 
a Member of Parliament, and in the Commission with the 
Earl of Warwick and others of rank, appointed to sup- 
press the rebels at the time Jack Straw became notorious. 
He was also one of the retinue of the Earl of Warwick at 
the siege of Calais. 

Kobert, the son of Sir Henry, served in Parliament, but 
joined the Yorkists, and was taken prisoner at the surprise 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 57 

of Northampton by the Lancastrians, convicted of treason, 
and beheaded. Walter, the son, succeeded in obtaining the 
father's property by the king's precept and escheator, and 
married Eleanor, daughter of John Hampden, of Hampden 
in Buckinghamshire — the ancestor of John Hampden, the 
patriot, who had both a fine head, a susceptible temperament, 
a large perceptive region, and a practical range of intellect. 
The blood of the Hampdens and Ardens united in the son 
of Walter, who was Sir John Arden, the elder brother of 
Kobert, said to be the great-grandfather of Mary Arden, the 
mother of Shakspere. 

Dugdale gives the following account of a romantic passage 
of arms between the families of Arden and Bracebridge, 
relating to the marriage of this said Sir John Arden : — 

" This Walter left issue John Arden his son and heir, 
one of the Esquiers of the body to King Henry VII : which 
John wedded Alice, daughter to Bic. Bracebrigge, of Kings- 
bury, Esq. But concerning this marriage . there arose no 
small difference on each side ; Walter Arden (the father) 
alledging that the said Bichard and his servants had stolen 
away his son : howbeit at length by a reference to Sir Sim. 
Mountfort, of Colshill, Kt., and Sir Bic. Bingham (the Judge 
who then lived at Middleton) it was determined that the 
marriage should be solemnized betwixt them in February, 
1473, 13th Edward IV. ; and in consideration of C. C. 
Mark's portion a convenient jointure settled: as also that 
for the trespasse done by the same Bichard Bracebrigge in 
so taking away the young gentleman, he should give to the 
before specified Walter Arden, the best horse that could by 
him be chosen in Kingsbury Bark." 

This little cabinet picture of courtship in the 15th cen- 
tury, shows ihat the lady of Kingsbury Bark had greater 
courage and daring than the heroines of modern romance. 
Alicia and her servitors had doubtless an easy conquest over 
the future body guard of the king, who cried for quarter 
before much mischief was done ; while the " trespasse" 
was paid for by the best horse in Kingsbury Bark — which 
doubtless gave full satisfaction to the son of the Knight of 
New Hall, for being bewitched away or stolen by his ladye- 
love. 

The Ardens were held in great consideration in the reigns 
of Henry VI. and Henry VII., Sir John Arden being Esquire 
to the body of the latter ; and his will, dated 1526, indicates 



58 SHAKSPERE I OR, 

that the king held him in great esteem, and honoured the 
family with a visit. The king gave him the manor of 
Yoxall in Staffordshire, consisting of 4,600 acres, at the 
nominal value of £42. 

Fuller, in his list of the Worthies of Warwickshire, 
mentions Simon and Edward Arden as Sheriffs in Warwick- 
shire—the former in 1562, the latter in 1568. 

William Arden, a cousin of Shakspere's mother, who had 
married a daughter of Sir E. Throgmorton, suffered death 
for treason in 1585. It is supposed that this was accom- 
plished by the machinations of his powerful enemy, the 
ambitious and sensuous Earl of Leicester, whose livery, 
during the visit of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth, and 
probably from a spirit of independence, he refused to wear. 

From these brief outlines of the deeds, sufferings, and 
possessions among the ancestry of the Ardens, we have evi- 
dence that, although disposed to pursue the even tenour of 
their way without interfering with others, they had the 
moral courage to stand up in the defence of what they con- 
sidered right, both as citizens and patriots — proving that 
they were endowed with energy, daring, and independence 
enough to bring more than one of them to the block, in 
times calculated to try the materials of which the Ardens 
were made. Mary Arden would be familiar with the history 
of her ancestry, and communicate its leading incidents to 
her eldest son ; showing that the Ardens were not only 
descended from the oldest, but the best families of their 
native county ; and prompting hhn as he succeeded in life, 
to found a family and a name so worthily quartered with 
the Ardens of historic repute. There can be little doubt 
that John Shakspere applied to the Herald's College for a 
grant of arms, at the request and expense of his son : and 
in stating the facts connected with the wealth and consider- 
ation of the Ardens, Garter confounded them with the " ante- 
cessors" of Shakspere, proving, however, the descent of the 
poet's mother from the great family, the Vicecomes of 
Warwick, in the days of the Anglo-Saxon kings. 

®fj« Mml Bog of Stten. 

As the ancestors of the Ardens were descended from 
the Anglo-Saxons, there can be little doubt that they 
were fair and light in complexion like their descendants ; 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 59 

and we have collateral evidence that at the time of 
Edward the Second, the great body of the people of 
Warwickshire were of the zanthons complexion. A few 
paces from the spot where I write may be seen two 
objects — one to the right and the other to the left of Guy's 
Cross Hill, reviving the memory of dark deeds arising 
out of difference of race, complexion, and position. The 
grand and lofty round towers of Warwick Castle stand out 
in bold and defiant attitude at the distance of about a mile 
from Blacklow Wood, in which a monument marks the spot 
where the Earl of Warwick and other Barons murdered Piers 
Gaveston, the Earl of Cornwall — the witty, accomplished, 
and handsome minister and adviser of the weak King 
Edward II., who selected his favourites for their personal 
beauty, and. the elegance of their manners, rather than for 
their wisdom, courage, or bravery. The barons could not 
endure the insolence of Gaveston, while the sarcastic 
courtier showed his contempt for the most furious of his 
enemies by designating Guy, Earl of Warwick, as "The 
Black Dog of Arden ;" showing thereby, that the com- 
plexion of the Earl of Warwick was dark — and as such, an 
alien among the fair-haired Anglo-Saxons of Warwickshire. 
The Normans held lands which formerly belonged to 
the fair sons of England. The change of proprietors was 
too recent to be forgotten. Tradition then had its full force 
undimmed by the diverting discoveries of more recent 
times. Now, if the Norman complexion had not been the 
exception, it would not have been a term of reproach. 
However, "the black dog of Arden" showed his teeth, and 
soon fastened them in the throat of the Earl of Cornwall, 
who had been recalled from banishment in defiance of the 
wishes of his enemies. While Piers Gaveston was holding 
the castle of Scarborough for the king, he was compelled to 
surrender it to the Earls of Pembroke, Hereford, and others. 
He was then hurried off to Dedclington Castle, near Ban- 
bury ; and although a treaty was agreed to for his personal 
safety, yet the scent was laid, for " the black dog of Arden," 
who mustered his retainers, seized the prisoner, and 
hurried him off to the keep at Warwick Castle ; and thence 
he was taken to the hill in Blacklow Wood, near Guy's 
Cliff ; and there, to gratify a savage vengeance, barbarously 
murdered. Warwick excused his cruelty by a piece of 
pious hypocrisy, in telling the people " it was for their great 



60 



SHAKSPERE : OR, 



good and glory of God," that lie left his victim no time to 
shrive his soul ! 

If the people and the aristocracy of Warwickshire had 
been dark and chocolate skinned like the Chandos portrait 
of Shakspere, it would not have been offensive and oppro- 
bious to designate the Earl of Warwick as black as the 
people around him. But, like a black sheep in a flock of 
white lambs, he was conspicuous among the fair sons of 
Arden by the darkness of complexion, and blackness of his 
beard. 






GEORGE SHAKSPERE, 

Living defcendant of Humphrey Shakfpere. 



Wfyz ^ngtagbaxon anfcr jBorman 3&aceg. 

At the present day the proportions of the Norman physi- 
ognomy to the Saxon type are only small in number, and 
will be found on a rough estimate to be, as in the ranks of 
the first and second Warwickshire militia, about one in a 
hundred. Among the officers, the proportion is larger. In 
the yeomanry, the proportion of the aquiline to the straight 
Grecian, Teutonic, or short Celtic feature, is much greater 
than among the militia. ( Among some 350 men there are 
marked differences. They have, as a body, larger heads ; 
while the aquiline physiognomy is in the ratio of four to 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 61 

the hundred. In the labouring agricultural population of 
the county, the proportion is not so numerous. On the day 
of the pageant, at the close of the late festival, there were 
more than 25,000 persons in Stratford from the neighbour- 
ing towns and villages, and the proportion of the aquiline 
contour was about the same as in the militia ; and these 
prevailed generally among the respectable farmer or yeoman 
class. Shakspere's family on one side belonged to this class, 
and a sister of Hannah Ward was considered very like the 
portrait of Susanna in its facial contour. Mrs. Attwood, 
the grandmother of the Wards, was also remarkable for her 
fine aquiline features, her fair complexion, and quiet yet 
commanding presence ; so that it is consistent with reason 
and the ethnic physiognomy of the family and the people of 
the district, that the Cast from the face, and the Jansen 
Portrait, should be true to nature, and genuine portraits of 
Shakspere* 

*In a letter in "The Times" of June 9th, Mr. John Coleman states that 
" it is generally understood that there is no living descendant of our great 
poet's family; but that George Shakspere, of Henley in Arden, is one." 
This is an erroneous impression. There are several descendants of Joan, the 
sister of the poet, who married William Hart. Mrs. Fletcher, who exhibited 
Shakspere's delf mythologically ornamented " Drinking Cup," at the Ter- 
centenary Portrait Gallery, is a descendant of the poet's sister, and the 
mother of several children still living at Gloucester. The pedigree of 
George Shakspere represents him as a descendant of Humphrey Shakspere. 
The latter is said to be the son of John Shakspere, the father of the poet. Here 
lies the main link to establish the descent. I agree with Mr. Halliwell (in his 
letter to "The Times" June 13th) as to the difficulty which surrounds the 
question ; for I have seen genealogical trees propagated and reared to apparent 
vitality and fruitfulness, while the roots remained unsound, and which proved , 
at the first touch, to be rotten and useless. It is a singular fact, that while 
Shakspere left legacies to the family of his sister, Joan Hart, he does not 
mention in his Will the children of Humphrey Shakspere. Mr. Coleman tells 
us he " needed no other testimony than that his face afforded. Heaven had 
written his pedigree in the plainest characters upon his brow ; he was the 
living image of our poet." This similarity between the face of George 
Shakspere and that of the bust, is a striking confirmation of what has been 
recorded about the Warwickshire type and physiognomy. I had observed 
in other branches, descendants of the Harts, a similar facial contour to that 
of the bust. But when it is said that the forehead of the bust is that of 
Shakspere, a difficulty arises. Besides, the profile, which I have given as an 
illustration of the Warwickshire type, as well as of one of the Shakspere 
physiognomies, is that of George Shakspere, the subject of discussion in 
" The Times ;" and it shows that his brow differs very materially from that 
of the bust given on the first page. These perplexing contradictions have 
probably arisen from the circumstance that the tombe-maker was perhaps 
compelled — as a few years had elapsed between the death of the poet, and his 
execution of the monument — to take a cast from a living Shakspere, to 
enable him to make the effigy. He took an impression of a living face, and, 
like artists of greater genius and skill, built up the form of the head to suit 
his fancy. Hence we have portraits of the bard with a head shaped like a sugar- 



62 SHAKSPERE : OR, 

From evidence obtained since the first part of this work 
was issued, and which is fully stated in a paper read at the 
Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland,* I 
have shown that Jansen resided and painted portraits in 
England at an earlier date than is generally supposed. 
Many writers have been led to "believe that the artist could 
not be in England at the time of Shakspere. This impres- 
sion has arisen from the assertion of Steevens, founded on 
the authority of Walpole, who was himself in doubt ; for 
he says the artist began to put his name to his pictures in 
England "about 1618." Whereas, Malone had a portrait 
in his possession with the name of Jansen on it, painted 
five years before the death of the poet. In 1618 the artist 
was employed by the father of John Milton to paint a like- 
ness of his son, then ten years of age. Jansen must there- 
fore have become celebrated as a portrait painter ;— an 
achievement not to be attained in a few months. Jansen 
was also employed by the Earl of Southampton, the friend 
and patron of the poet, to paint portraits of the Countess 
of Southampton, and also of his eldest daughter Elizabeth 
Wriothesley, and the wife of Earl Spenser. It is reasonable 
therefore to suppose that Southampton would request — nay 
urge — his favourite artist to take portraits of his friend, 
associate, and esteemed poet, to ornament the walls of one 
or both his residences at Tichfield and Beaulieu, as evidence 
of his taste, liberality, and appreciation of his friend, the 
greatest genius of the age. The knowledge that a good 
likeness existed might be the reason that the cast taken after 
death was not preserved by the family ; and as Shakspere 
had become popular several years before his death, his por- 
traits would be multiplied, and hence the various duplicates 
by Jansen, one of the finest of which is at Longbridge 
House. 

As nature is consistent, and never arrives at her results 
but by the most simple, direct, and uniform means— so 
similar physical forms of the head, brain, and bust will be 
alike expressive of similar conditions and capabilities. If 

loaf, and others as round as a turnip ; while the two that are the most 
natural are the most true, and withal the most beautiful. A cast from a 
plaster mould which I took a short time ago from the face of George Shak- 
spere, has some slight resemblance to the lower part of the features, but none 
to the forehead, of the bust of Shakspere at Stratford. 

* At the annual meeting held at Warwick, in July, 1864, under 
the presidency of the Rt. Hon. Lord Leigh ; Lord Neaves in the chair. 



THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 63 

otter portraits of Warwickshire worthies are contrasted 
with the bust and portrait at Stratford, we shall find 
further evidence for arriving at the conclusion that Jan- 
sen's portraiture is the most truthful of all the pictures 
yet painted as a likeness of Shakspere. It would "be 
interesting and suggestive to contrast the portraits of 
Leicester by Garrard, the Stratford bust, and the portrait 
at the birthplace, with the picture of Sir William Dugdale, 
painted by Borsseller, and the portrait of Shakspere by 
Jansen. 

The portrait of Dugdale indicates a man endowed with 
a fine and harmonious mental development — viz., large per- 
ceptive powers, keen observation, great range of view, and 
a very active temperament, with great love of facts, order, 
and arrangement. The active conditions of body and 
highly -wrought brain are forcibly indicated by the expres- 
sions of the" features, as well as by the temperament and 
the physical proportions. The very hands bespeak this 
active and practical tendency of his mind. The gross forms 
of Leicester, with the sensuous appetites and feeble hands, 
form a striking contrast with the finer forms of Dugdale, 
in his head, his hands, aud his bust. The conclusion must 
be, that Dugdale, rather than Leicester, and Jansen, 
rather than the bust or the portrait at Stratford, represent 
the type of head in the intellectual forms pertaining to a 
poet of Shakspere's sensitive, active, and comprehensive 
character. 

TOe Conclusions. 

In glancing at the results of these enquiries, we .find 
that until the present century the mere artist was not in 
possession of any scientific knowledge of the relation of 
cerebral organisation, or form of head, with capacity and 
character ; and that, even at the present time, few artists 
fully and practically comprehend or embody these relations. 

That several portraits said to be Shakspere cannot be 
genuine : that the bust at Stratford was taken from a cast 
of a living face, and one without a moustache ; and there- 
fore, not a copy from Shakspere after death : that the 
Stratford portrait has no claim to be considered a genuine 
likeness of the poet : that the Droeshout portrait, though 
interesting, and possessing some resemblance to the features 



64 THE HERITAGE OF GENIUS. 






£ 



and proportions of the poet, appears too narrow at' the sides 
of the head, deficient in the perceptive region over the eye- 
brows, and the proportions too weak for the head of a poet 
like Shakspere : that the Chandos portrait, originally painted 
as a likeness, has been so much altered and "improved" as 
to remove it from the list of reliable portraits ; it is more- 
over, painted of a dark complexion, and in a style later 
than that at which the poet lived : that the Mask* said to be 
taken after death singularly agrees in form, physiognomy, 
and complexion, with the portraits by Jansen : that the com- 
plexion of the poet, from direct and collateral evidence, was, 
like the majority of the Anglo-Saxon race in the county, 
and the living descendants of his sister, fair, and his physi- 
ognomy aquiline : that.the portrait from Shottery, said to be 
" Susanna, the daughter of Shakspere," and discovered by 
the author to belong to indigent descendants of the Hath- 
aways, is fair, aquiline, and finely formed ; and when put 
side by side with another picture from the birth-place in 
Henley-street, found to be the counterpart, except in age, 
and singularly like it in feature, pose, and complexion: 
and lastly, that while educational influences, circum- 
stances, and training, are important in the development of 
human intellect, genius is the heritage of cerebral quality 
and physical conditions in the family and the race ; and that 
the structural conditions of the cerebral and physical consti- 
tutions of the ancestry were united, concentrated, and mani- 
fested by the extraordinary powers of intellelt and character 
of eminent men ; and that the ancestors of Shakspere 
show a long line of men of superior moral and mental 
attributes ; and, that mainly to the Ardens the world owes 
the noble heritage of the refined sensibilities and genius of 
Shakspere. 

* Professor Owen informs me that the Mask from Shaks- 
pere's face is in his possession, and not at the British Museum, 
as previously stated. 



London : Fred. Pitman, 20, Paternoster Row, E.C. 

Printed by J. Ward, Dewsbury. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Feb. 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 156 852 8 



